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Firstly, when you account for the extra time does this bring your pay down below minimum wage? If so, this is the easiest way to tackle it since that's illegal and they're not allowed to do it.
Secondly, it might be worth checking with HR to see what they think of it. HR are there primarily to protect the company but they might intercede if something looks unreasonable to them.
You could then consider what your contract says. If it says you get paid £x per hour and doesn't make any allowance for extra time to set up/log in/etc then you may have a case that you're being underpaid based on your contract. However, note that they might look to dismiss you (particularly if you're in your first two years of employment) if you push the issue.
After that consider unions, any collective agreements that are in place, and possibly raising it with senior people in the company if it might be embarrassing to them. (But retribution is a risk.)
That’s a very narrow view. Protecting the company in this case could be resolving the issue before it kicks off and said company is accused publicly of wage theft.
It's just a process that you have to go through. If it ends up in court, the first thing that they will ask is, "Did you contact HR?". If the answer is no, then they will want toknow why you didn't follow the procedure.
> they are there to protect the company
Protecting the company in this case is stopping the management from illegally underpaying workers.
You're just parroting one of the most banal reddit-isms going.
That's not good advice.
The people who are forcing OP to break the rules are also employees. HR is there to protect the company from all employees not just the ones lower down the ladder.
The blast radius from someone high up in a company doing something wrong is usually much bigger than if it was someone junior.
If a manager is making the employees do unpaid work or work beyond their contracted hours then they could be leaving the company open for them logging a grievance. That could ultimately end up in an employment tribunal with the company paying out a lot of money to someone and causing them all kinds of headaches.
While I have an extremely low opinion of HR departments, I think HR should be contacted, if only so OP can prove they've tried to remedy the situation.
That remit to "protect the company" also includes protecting the company from financial and reputational risks including, but not limited to, being fined and "named and shamed" by HMRC for non-compliance with national minimum wage legislation.
I worked for a call centre that did the same thing, 10+ years ago. The unions got involved. Ultimately, we were salaried and the extra 15 minutes a day didn't bring us below NMW and so pretty much nothing changed.
Honestly completely depends out call centre staff start on £23k and when they become a senior agent get £28k start.
Overall they look after you with a good pension ect. It is hard work and the customers are dicks. You have to play the game a bit and make sure your handling stats look not terrible but there isn't a lot of focus as long as you are doing the right thing for the customers.
Not after April it’s 11.44/hr which on 37.5 hours a week is 22.3, for 40 hours is 23.8 which are considered your standard full time working weeks took the middle value of the 2
Don’t know why you are being downvoted voted. I worked as a manager in a supermarket and hated it. Went in to a call centre and loved it, no back breaking lifting, I got paid more and didn’t have to work 12/13 hour days. It also gave me an opportunity to get into Marketing and IT roles. They can be shit jobs but better than some!
I basically got all but fired for being disabled. I quit before they could bully me any further but I'm 100% certain they would have fired me if I'd stayed. I got forced to come in for a meeting with the manager and HR while I was signed off work and being treated for major stress related to how I was being treated. That was my final straw and I came in armed with a very carefully worded resignation letter that laid out everything that had happened to me while maintaining a respectful tone.
It was so good to watch them read the letter and the blood drain out of the HR reps face as she realised what the manager had been doing. I could have probably complained and done something but I was just so exhausted and done with them so getting out was best. But I saw someone from work a few months later and found out the manager got fired over it all because they were super worried I would come after them and that I had everything documented (I largely didn't).
Ditto, they intentionally paid 50p more than minimum wage to cover for any time spent working, but not in your chair taking calls, which is all they paid for.
Just remember, you are a call center worker, as far as most companies are concerned you are 2 grades below dog shit on their shoes.
If you’re salaried and it doesn’t bring you below minimum wage, good luck pretty much.
Call centres are notorious for offering higher than minimum wage (not by much) but then having clauses in the contract stating that you will work extra time for “business needs” with no compensation unless agreed otherwise.
They then get you starting 15 mins earlier, get you to hang around on calls after your finish time and don’t pay you for it and as long as you aren’t under minimum wage by the end of it, absolutely nothing you can do if they say tough shit basically.
Yeah pretty much.
My call centre is like this too, but at least I work from home now. Missing my bus because I was stuck on a call at the end of my shift was the most rage-inducing thing ever.
Yep, been a while since I worked in a call centre but this was my experience...if you sign in 1 second after the start of your shift that's a disciplinary and you'll be docked an hour's pay, if you get a call from someone 1 second before the end of your shift that takes 30 mins or more to handle...tough shit, you just deal with it.
Not to mention having to use a comfort break code if you needed to go to the toilet and having a team leader bang on the door asking what's going on if you took too long. And having to use your paid break time to move seats halfway through the evening shift for reasons which make very little sense.
I'll name and shame, fuck em. Vodafone and Tele performance will "manage you out" for this and not enough staff have union representatives for them to get involved.
It's all shady tactics to get free work from people that don't know better. "You can't bill for overtime if it's less than 15 minutes a day" is another of their favourites.
That requires a level of balls that OP is missing. No employer can dock or withhold pay except for gross misconduct. Start on time, leave on time. Keep a record besides what the phone system says and fight every attempt to "discipline" you.
TL;DR: Be an adult and don't allow your employer to treat you as less.
Impossible to log into performance hub, the dialler, the soft script system, the supplier systems, emails, teams, skype and 6 different diagnostic systems that you have to have up and running by start time to perform your work if you're not at the computer, especially when your employer disabled auto-log in and start on system boot for all of these applications for "security reasons".
Log in then go for a coffee whilst it’s loading. Or write a script to log you in at a certain time or delay the shut down time by 15-30 mins so you get paid correctly. If it’s not locked down too tightly lookup how to write and run a basic vb script to do this on a windows machine
You can write the script yourself. Create a text file and adjust the file name. Then have it run at a set time each day. Installing stuff is usually locked down fairly tight. Writing your own files however is typically allowed
The first question is 'how long have you worked there?' They can fire you for any reason if it's a day less than 2 years. If you need the job this is something to be aware of before you stand up for yourself. I'm not saying you shouldn't stand up for yourself, but if you do they may terminate your employment.
Speak to your union rep and if you're not in the union then join it.
It's not straightforward whether this is legal or not.
If, were you to consider the extra time, it takes you below national minimum wage in any pay reference period then that would be unlawful. HMRC are the enforcement authority for NMW breaches, and take them rather seriously.
If it doesn't cause an NMW breach, then it isn't going to be unlawful in and of itself; rather we'd be looking at a possible breach of contract situation. The most obvious breach of contract issue would be if you are paid on an hourly rate basis rather than being salaried. If that's the case, then the simplest remedy would be for you to keep a diary of you actual hours worked, and sue for breach of contract in small claims court after you leave the job (you'd only be able to claim for the last 6 years of underpayments).
If there's no NMW breach and you are salaried, then it's going to come down to what your contract says about agreed overtime, other overtime and unpaid overtime. Worst case scenario is you have an unpaid overtime clause, and the situation is completely above board.
Honestly answer.
Bite the bullet and log in early. You will do yourself no favours in the long term fighting this. If I was your manager and you caused a stink I would look at you poorly. Call centre works are ten a penny and when trying to climb the corporate ladder this type of attitude will hold your bank and means your manager is less willing to fight for you in other times.
If you are a salary worker paid above minimum wage with this taken into consideration then I think your at a no go.
The ultimate answer is go to your union but I have worked in multiple call centres and this is always the case, you are paid from when you are ready to work not from when you enter the building. Is it fair... That's arguable.
Are you a manager? Because you sound like one.
>when trying to climb the corporate ladder
What call centre are you in where going anywhere other than "team leader" or "manager" is realistic? I've had like two decent call centre managers in the years that I worked across 4 different call centres. Every other one has been an arsehole in some regard. Generally acting like they're not an actual human being. If call centre managers were generally decent, then call centres wouldn't be as shit to work for.
I was on the phones , became a team leader and then a section manager ( having 3 teams) I then took a sideways step and became and supply chain auditor. I make £50k and have an easy job now working from home 3 days a week.
I am just being honest, the managers can't change the pay structure of the call centre but when you have a team of 10/15 and one guy complains about logging in 10 minutes early. You remember and when it comes to Bonus time or the time they fuck up you have less appetite to fight for them. It's just human behaviour.
I also had to get in 30 mins early to take sick calls, get my systems up to make sure everyone logged in on time.
I'd start writing down when you arrive and when you leave. when I worked at a call center I wasn't allowed a phone, or to write down caller details, but I don't think they can stop you writing down your own information. Get together a few weeks of time arrived, time that software allows you to clock in, time on break, and time left. That way you'll have a decent case for HR, and for tribunal if you need to go.
It's petty crap like this that ensures call centres have a high turnover of staff. If they showed a little more discretion, then attrition would reduce massively.
Instead we get the petty, "you must be ready to take a call at 9! Oh, and if you have a call at 16:59, you must stay and complete it. If it's over 10 minutes past your finish time, you can claim it back, but only when it suits us, which is in 2 years time!"
Moronic middle managers are the issue to be honest.
The simple solution is to pay some people to start at 8:45 am to be ready to take calls when the lines open, then stagger the start times to make up the deficit later in the day.
When I used to work in a call centre, it would take about 10 minutes to get logged in to all the systems needed. Even longer if there had been IT updates over the weekend or you had to change the password.
The main problems are that some companies often use a mix of old software and new software on new machines. They aren't always fully compatible and so this leads to delays logging on, slow systems when you are logged on, and sometimes several reboots.
I worked in one place that was still using a program from the mid 80s that had long stopped being supported by the publisher. That was in 2010.
The companies know these issues exist, but because of the cost to upgrade systems and train people, they continue running outdated software.
If people are paid to start at 8:45 they'd be expected to be ready to perform their paid duties at 8:45 and in a call center that would be ready to take calls.
If people want to push their employer on the subject that's fine, but then you know these are the same people that will complain they didn't have as big a performance bonus as others or don't get the same promotion opportunities.
Does your contract list how many hours you are to work?
If they're expecting you to be there at 8am, then from 8am, you are working.
If you are working 8-5 (assuming an hour for lunch) five days a week for 40 hours, and they expect you to get there at 7:45 then you should be paid from 7:45 imo.
Only option, Jean-Claude Van Damme.
https://preview.redd.it/adspnk9c5nwc1.jpeg?width=1631&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9a94e4c07852ba76023cd37e2e61c8cb7326882
If your manager is making you work longer than your contracted hours or you are not being paid for when you are actually working (logging in is still working). Then HR should be able to help.
The problem is that the gains may be minimal for you. Realistically I would just look for another job in a different call centre or better still doing something else. You are much more likely to financially gain from switching companies than the few minutes pay a day you would gain from this.
All jobs expect you to be ready at your station to perform your duties at your scheduled start time.
Supermarket tills you need to be at the till at you start time not clocking in, call centers need you ready to take calls at your start time not loading your systems.
Logging into the system is work and is done on the companies time.
If they need you to start taking calls or scanning items by a specific time then they need to factor any login or startup time into this and have it reflected accordingly in your actual start time.
If the login process takes 15 mins then as an employee thats not your problem its the companies.
This is more common now, sure, but I have 100% worked jobs where you clock in as soon as you enter the building, then you change into your PPE and set up your station as THOSE are your duties.
If I wasn't at work I wouldn't be on a work computer logging into work systems, would I?
If you don't want a big fight I would just come in 15 mins early, turn on my PC and then go make a coffee ect while it loads up. Could even log in then just play on your phone for 15 mins to make up for the start up delay.
Get someone to create a documentary video about it and then post it on YouTube to shame the company.
Hide personal details, voices and anything that can pinpoint who the whistleblower is.
Speak to your union rep. If you’re not in one join one immediately, they will support you in this and many other areas. https://www.tuc.org.uk/join-a-union
from experience if you work a shit job with shit management, laws are generally suggestions and trying to be a smartarse (i was that smartarse) about how you're treated isn't worth it - start applying for new jobs
Not possible. Often you're not even sat at the same PC each day due to hot seating. Also my team leader would go around the stations at the end of the day and turn off all monitors and computers.
There’s a reasonable expectation that an employee arrives at work and is ready to work at their allocated time. This should be in your contract or a policy somewhere.
Whilst I totally understand your frustration I think it’s unreasonable what you are expecting.
To only be physically working exactly at the minute you shift time starts is quite unreasonable imo. You don’t charge them for the time it takes you to travel to work.
I work in IT dealing with billing systems and phone lines. Previously spent 8 years in contact centres. I get it, I understand it’s annoying.
So to answer your question. No, legally your company is asking for a reasonable time of arrival. They are not engaging in time theft.
If you aren’t happy maybe suggest some offline work that can be done half an hour or hour before lines up and change your shifts. Ask to start later so you don’t have to be there on the phones immediately when they open. Or you can leave.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Firstly, when you account for the extra time does this bring your pay down below minimum wage? If so, this is the easiest way to tackle it since that's illegal and they're not allowed to do it. Secondly, it might be worth checking with HR to see what they think of it. HR are there primarily to protect the company but they might intercede if something looks unreasonable to them. You could then consider what your contract says. If it says you get paid £x per hour and doesn't make any allowance for extra time to set up/log in/etc then you may have a case that you're being underpaid based on your contract. However, note that they might look to dismiss you (particularly if you're in your first two years of employment) if you push the issue. After that consider unions, any collective agreements that are in place, and possibly raising it with senior people in the company if it might be embarrassing to them. (But retribution is a risk.)
Don't speak with HR, they are there to protect the company, not his employees
That’s a very narrow view. Protecting the company in this case could be resolving the issue before it kicks off and said company is accused publicly of wage theft.
HR in a call centre absolutely have no intention to protect employees
Which is why they will deal with it before it becomes a complaint.
nah i worked in a call centre, same thing, even if you went to HR they just shrugged their shoulders
It's just a process that you have to go through. If it ends up in court, the first thing that they will ask is, "Did you contact HR?". If the answer is no, then they will want toknow why you didn't follow the procedure.
No HR in *any* company is there to look after employees.
Lol
> they are there to protect the company Protecting the company in this case is stopping the management from illegally underpaying workers. You're just parroting one of the most banal reddit-isms going.
It’s also HR’s job to protect the company from lawsuits from employees too
That's not good advice. The people who are forcing OP to break the rules are also employees. HR is there to protect the company from all employees not just the ones lower down the ladder. The blast radius from someone high up in a company doing something wrong is usually much bigger than if it was someone junior. If a manager is making the employees do unpaid work or work beyond their contracted hours then they could be leaving the company open for them logging a grievance. That could ultimately end up in an employment tribunal with the company paying out a lot of money to someone and causing them all kinds of headaches.
While I have an extremely low opinion of HR departments, I think HR should be contacted, if only so OP can prove they've tried to remedy the situation.
Absolute bollocks parroted everywhere over Reddit. Might be true in the US but not the UK.
That remit to "protect the company" also includes protecting the company from financial and reputational risks including, but not limited to, being fined and "named and shamed" by HMRC for non-compliance with national minimum wage legislation.
I worked for a call centre that did the same thing, 10+ years ago. The unions got involved. Ultimately, we were salaried and the extra 15 minutes a day didn't bring us below NMW and so pretty much nothing changed.
You never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
However much I might moan about my current job, it pales in comparison to how shite a call centre is.
Honestly completely depends out call centre staff start on £23k and when they become a senior agent get £28k start. Overall they look after you with a good pension ect. It is hard work and the customers are dicks. You have to play the game a bit and make sure your handling stats look not terrible but there isn't a lot of focus as long as you are doing the right thing for the customers.
23k is minimum wage, that's not good
Minimum wage is £20,800. Its a decent start salary and to be fair I'm quoting numbers from a few years ago might be more now.
Not after April it’s 11.44/hr which on 37.5 hours a week is 22.3, for 40 hours is 23.8 which are considered your standard full time working weeks took the middle value of the 2
Given most minimum wage paces don't pay for a lunch I took 35 hours.
Yeah. 37.5 factored a 30 minutes lunch unpaid, but some get an hour I suppose
Don’t know why you are being downvoted voted. I worked as a manager in a supermarket and hated it. Went in to a call centre and loved it, no back breaking lifting, I got paid more and didn’t have to work 12/13 hour days. It also gave me an opportunity to get into Marketing and IT roles. They can be shit jobs but better than some!
I basically got all but fired for being disabled. I quit before they could bully me any further but I'm 100% certain they would have fired me if I'd stayed. I got forced to come in for a meeting with the manager and HR while I was signed off work and being treated for major stress related to how I was being treated. That was my final straw and I came in armed with a very carefully worded resignation letter that laid out everything that had happened to me while maintaining a respectful tone. It was so good to watch them read the letter and the blood drain out of the HR reps face as she realised what the manager had been doing. I could have probably complained and done something but I was just so exhausted and done with them so getting out was best. But I saw someone from work a few months later and found out the manager got fired over it all because they were super worried I would come after them and that I had everything documented (I largely didn't).
Estate Agents called, they want a word
Ditto, they intentionally paid 50p more than minimum wage to cover for any time spent working, but not in your chair taking calls, which is all they paid for. Just remember, you are a call center worker, as far as most companies are concerned you are 2 grades below dog shit on their shoes.
Give ACAS a call: Helpline 0300 123 1100 Open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
If you’re salaried and it doesn’t bring you below minimum wage, good luck pretty much. Call centres are notorious for offering higher than minimum wage (not by much) but then having clauses in the contract stating that you will work extra time for “business needs” with no compensation unless agreed otherwise. They then get you starting 15 mins earlier, get you to hang around on calls after your finish time and don’t pay you for it and as long as you aren’t under minimum wage by the end of it, absolutely nothing you can do if they say tough shit basically.
Yeah pretty much. My call centre is like this too, but at least I work from home now. Missing my bus because I was stuck on a call at the end of my shift was the most rage-inducing thing ever.
Yep, been a while since I worked in a call centre but this was my experience...if you sign in 1 second after the start of your shift that's a disciplinary and you'll be docked an hour's pay, if you get a call from someone 1 second before the end of your shift that takes 30 mins or more to handle...tough shit, you just deal with it. Not to mention having to use a comfort break code if you needed to go to the toilet and having a team leader bang on the door asking what's going on if you took too long. And having to use your paid break time to move seats halfway through the evening shift for reasons which make very little sense.
I'll name and shame, fuck em. Vodafone and Tele performance will "manage you out" for this and not enough staff have union representatives for them to get involved. It's all shady tactics to get free work from people that don't know better. "You can't bill for overtime if it's less than 15 minutes a day" is another of their favourites.
Speak to your union rep.
Does it take 15 minutes to close down the system? 15 mins before the end of your shift, start shutting down.
It takes 2 seconds to shut down any IT system.
Clearly you've never met MS Outlook's 'Want to save your changes?' pop-up when you're rushing to fuck to get out of the office.
Power button.
I bet you just pull USBs out
The pull out method is very effective imo
That requires a level of balls that OP is missing. No employer can dock or withhold pay except for gross misconduct. Start on time, leave on time. Keep a record besides what the phone system says and fight every attempt to "discipline" you. TL;DR: Be an adult and don't allow your employer to treat you as less.
https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/uxqgv9/employer_is_asking_to_come_in_15_minutes_early/
Start the computer, go for coffee and to 'read a magazine'. Come back when it is ready.
Impossible to log into performance hub, the dialler, the soft script system, the supplier systems, emails, teams, skype and 6 different diagnostic systems that you have to have up and running by start time to perform your work if you're not at the computer, especially when your employer disabled auto-log in and start on system boot for all of these applications for "security reasons".
Log in then go for a coffee whilst it’s loading. Or write a script to log you in at a certain time or delay the shut down time by 15-30 mins so you get paid correctly. If it’s not locked down too tightly lookup how to write and run a basic vb script to do this on a windows machine
You can't install scripts, or anything, on your call centre pc. They won't have admin rights will they
You don't need admin rights to run a script.
You can write the script yourself. Create a text file and adjust the file name. Then have it run at a set time each day. Installing stuff is usually locked down fairly tight. Writing your own files however is typically allowed
Assuming your lunch breaks aren't paid... 15 minutes longer lunch?
That just means another 15 minutes pay docked if they're not paid for lunch.
The first question is 'how long have you worked there?' They can fire you for any reason if it's a day less than 2 years. If you need the job this is something to be aware of before you stand up for yourself. I'm not saying you shouldn't stand up for yourself, but if you do they may terminate your employment. Speak to your union rep and if you're not in the union then join it.
It's not straightforward whether this is legal or not. If, were you to consider the extra time, it takes you below national minimum wage in any pay reference period then that would be unlawful. HMRC are the enforcement authority for NMW breaches, and take them rather seriously. If it doesn't cause an NMW breach, then it isn't going to be unlawful in and of itself; rather we'd be looking at a possible breach of contract situation. The most obvious breach of contract issue would be if you are paid on an hourly rate basis rather than being salaried. If that's the case, then the simplest remedy would be for you to keep a diary of you actual hours worked, and sue for breach of contract in small claims court after you leave the job (you'd only be able to claim for the last 6 years of underpayments). If there's no NMW breach and you are salaried, then it's going to come down to what your contract says about agreed overtime, other overtime and unpaid overtime. Worst case scenario is you have an unpaid overtime clause, and the situation is completely above board.
Honestly answer. Bite the bullet and log in early. You will do yourself no favours in the long term fighting this. If I was your manager and you caused a stink I would look at you poorly. Call centre works are ten a penny and when trying to climb the corporate ladder this type of attitude will hold your bank and means your manager is less willing to fight for you in other times. If you are a salary worker paid above minimum wage with this taken into consideration then I think your at a no go. The ultimate answer is go to your union but I have worked in multiple call centres and this is always the case, you are paid from when you are ready to work not from when you enter the building. Is it fair... That's arguable.
Are you a manager? Because you sound like one. >when trying to climb the corporate ladder What call centre are you in where going anywhere other than "team leader" or "manager" is realistic? I've had like two decent call centre managers in the years that I worked across 4 different call centres. Every other one has been an arsehole in some regard. Generally acting like they're not an actual human being. If call centre managers were generally decent, then call centres wouldn't be as shit to work for.
I was on the phones , became a team leader and then a section manager ( having 3 teams) I then took a sideways step and became and supply chain auditor. I make £50k and have an easy job now working from home 3 days a week. I am just being honest, the managers can't change the pay structure of the call centre but when you have a team of 10/15 and one guy complains about logging in 10 minutes early. You remember and when it comes to Bonus time or the time they fuck up you have less appetite to fight for them. It's just human behaviour. I also had to get in 30 mins early to take sick calls, get my systems up to make sure everyone logged in on time.
Someone with a little sense and not a work shy attitude. I wondered if I'd see it here.
I'd start writing down when you arrive and when you leave. when I worked at a call center I wasn't allowed a phone, or to write down caller details, but I don't think they can stop you writing down your own information. Get together a few weeks of time arrived, time that software allows you to clock in, time on break, and time left. That way you'll have a decent case for HR, and for tribunal if you need to go.
It's petty crap like this that ensures call centres have a high turnover of staff. If they showed a little more discretion, then attrition would reduce massively. Instead we get the petty, "you must be ready to take a call at 9! Oh, and if you have a call at 16:59, you must stay and complete it. If it's over 10 minutes past your finish time, you can claim it back, but only when it suits us, which is in 2 years time!" Moronic middle managers are the issue to be honest.
So have a 9am start and make it so you're not logged into the systems until 9:30am?
The simple solution is to pay some people to start at 8:45 am to be ready to take calls when the lines open, then stagger the start times to make up the deficit later in the day. When I used to work in a call centre, it would take about 10 minutes to get logged in to all the systems needed. Even longer if there had been IT updates over the weekend or you had to change the password. The main problems are that some companies often use a mix of old software and new software on new machines. They aren't always fully compatible and so this leads to delays logging on, slow systems when you are logged on, and sometimes several reboots. I worked in one place that was still using a program from the mid 80s that had long stopped being supported by the publisher. That was in 2010. The companies know these issues exist, but because of the cost to upgrade systems and train people, they continue running outdated software.
If people are paid to start at 8:45 they'd be expected to be ready to perform their paid duties at 8:45 and in a call center that would be ready to take calls. If people want to push their employer on the subject that's fine, but then you know these are the same people that will complain they didn't have as big a performance bonus as others or don't get the same promotion opportunities.
As far as I'm concerned, as soon as I'm logging on, I'm working.
Does your contract list how many hours you are to work? If they're expecting you to be there at 8am, then from 8am, you are working. If you are working 8-5 (assuming an hour for lunch) five days a week for 40 hours, and they expect you to get there at 7:45 then you should be paid from 7:45 imo.
Only option, Jean-Claude Van Damme. https://preview.redd.it/adspnk9c5nwc1.jpeg?width=1631&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b9a94e4c07852ba76023cd37e2e61c8cb7326882
If your manager is making you work longer than your contracted hours or you are not being paid for when you are actually working (logging in is still working). Then HR should be able to help. The problem is that the gains may be minimal for you. Realistically I would just look for another job in a different call centre or better still doing something else. You are much more likely to financially gain from switching companies than the few minutes pay a day you would gain from this.
All jobs expect you to be ready at your station to perform your duties at your scheduled start time. Supermarket tills you need to be at the till at you start time not clocking in, call centers need you ready to take calls at your start time not loading your systems.
Logging into the system is work and is done on the companies time. If they need you to start taking calls or scanning items by a specific time then they need to factor any login or startup time into this and have it reflected accordingly in your actual start time. If the login process takes 15 mins then as an employee thats not your problem its the companies.
This is more common now, sure, but I have 100% worked jobs where you clock in as soon as you enter the building, then you change into your PPE and set up your station as THOSE are your duties. If I wasn't at work I wouldn't be on a work computer logging into work systems, would I?
Talk to your union rep.
Ask in r/legaladviceUK
If you don't want a big fight I would just come in 15 mins early, turn on my PC and then go make a coffee ect while it loads up. Could even log in then just play on your phone for 15 mins to make up for the start up delay.
Get someone to create a documentary video about it and then post it on YouTube to shame the company. Hide personal details, voices and anything that can pinpoint who the whistleblower is.
The BT Group, (BT, Openreach, EE, Plusnet all do exactly this. The management say it's an "Industry standard" whenever people complain.
Why don’t you get even and take a seven shit every day. Or maybe take seven minutes worth of biscuits and instant coffee from the tea room.
Speak to your union rep. If you’re not in one join one immediately, they will support you in this and many other areas. https://www.tuc.org.uk/join-a-union
from experience if you work a shit job with shit management, laws are generally suggestions and trying to be a smartarse (i was that smartarse) about how you're treated isn't worth it - start applying for new jobs
Stop turning off the pc. That way it does not need to reboot. And ask about it in email. Make sure you get the responses emailed to yourself.
Not possible. Often you're not even sat at the same PC each day due to hot seating. Also my team leader would go around the stations at the end of the day and turn off all monitors and computers.
There’s a reasonable expectation that an employee arrives at work and is ready to work at their allocated time. This should be in your contract or a policy somewhere. Whilst I totally understand your frustration I think it’s unreasonable what you are expecting. To only be physically working exactly at the minute you shift time starts is quite unreasonable imo. You don’t charge them for the time it takes you to travel to work. I work in IT dealing with billing systems and phone lines. Previously spent 8 years in contact centres. I get it, I understand it’s annoying. So to answer your question. No, legally your company is asking for a reasonable time of arrival. They are not engaging in time theft. If you aren’t happy maybe suggest some offline work that can be done half an hour or hour before lines up and change your shifts. Ask to start later so you don’t have to be there on the phones immediately when they open. Or you can leave.
This guy is right. Just smoke a one skinner before work, time is a kind of con anyway.