The alarm goes off. You roll over, bleary eyed and turn it off. You sigh — it’s another day of work. You pick up your smartphone — it’s 6am, but you decide you should probably check what important emails have come through overnight. You respond to a couple of urgent requests before stumbling out of bed and hopping in the shower. And if you were in Brazil, you’ve just earned yourself a nice little bit of overtime…
The Brazilian government last month approved legislation that stated that answering company emails after the end of a shift constituted overtime. The new law makes it possible for employees to request overtime when they have to work after hours, even if they do it from the comfort of their own home.
How it works in practice is yet to be seen, but don’t expect developed countries around the world to offer the same overtime promise. Best you can do is practice your Portuguese and work on your tan before moving to the South American country. [SMH]
Chris Staring
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 9:36 AMAnd so it should be! If you have left work for the day why should you be expected to be contacted in your own personal time to work without being paid! I wasn’t aware people didn’t get overtime, or some sort of bonus for emailing after work hours in Aus.
Jatallica
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 10:17 AMahhh thats the same here in Australia, if you work and it is outside your shift it is overtime.
Working remotely from home is still working and under Aussie law is seen the same as working in your office. I have never not claimed overtime when doing work from home out of hours, and I don’t speak a hint of Portuguese.
Ozoneocean
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:06 PMAnd so it should be. Anything else is less than civilised.
kato
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 12:33 PMJatallica, there is no broad Australian law that states that any time worked outside your shift is overtime. It may be in your individual or collective agreement but there is nothing to cover you under Industrial Law. In fact, thanks to Work Choices, you may even be under a contract that contains no breaks of any kind and no recognition of weekends or public holidays.
Boomzzilla
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 1:28 PMGwt a Govt. job, a mate of mine in the civil service gets a 2-5 min phonecall every sat arvo from his underlings then another an hour or two later and gets $70 a full hours pay per call
kato
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 2:26 PMI have a Government job. Most of us aren’t covered by agreements that provide significant wages or overtime payments, but admittedly our conditions for personal leave (18 days per year) and superannuation (15.4%) are quite good. Although, we have to negotiate quite fiercely through our union to maintain these conditions.
malliemcg
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 8:58 AMI have no idea what level they’re at or for which department your mate works, but working in IT with the on call phone, I don’t get jack for any call outs. No over time, no time in lieu (unless my boss is feeling generous). Not bad for the department an extra 10-15% worth of hours worked for no extra expense.
No wonder none of the contractors wish to convert to permies.
HiddenGirl
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 7:11 PMLolz, work in IT, there is no unions, and you are on a Salary, therefore you are expected to do “Reasonable Overtime” as part of your package, whatever that is.
In saying that, with the company I work for, if we are charging a client of time, we can claim overtime, otherwise, you get nothing.
I have done many many hours of unpaid overtime working in IT, it is expected, and it sucks.
kato
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 2:03 PMNothing stopping you from unionising the IT industry!
I’ve known of a few people who worked in IT and got paid enormous amounts for being on call but only doing a few minutes of work (and getting paid minimum 3hrs overtime) – why should some get extra and some get none?
Highly recommend contacting your local Trade Union’s hall and seeing how they can help.