Started a new job and was really enjoying the team and the work.
3 weeks in, I got my first payslip and noticed it was short and when I asked the owner (thinking this was just a mistake I was bringing to their attention), long story short, found out that we are not paid for the overtime that is required every day. I was accused of having no experience in this field if I didn't know that all businesses of this kind operated this way.
Within 15 minutes I was given a contract that outlined the hours that didn't include the expected unpaid overtime.
I called Citzens Information to check I was right that it was my right to be paid for this overtime and they agreed and advised that now I had a contract that only stipulated the paid hours, that I should proceed only to work the contracted hours and no more.
I did this the next day, only being ready to start work one minute before the time stipulated in my contract and found the staff meeting had already concluded. (The owner had insisted that the staff meetings didn't begin until 9am)
Then in the evening I started completing what was required of me earlier, with the aim to be finished at the time stipulated in the contract. A manager told me this wasn't allowed and I explained that if my work hours ended at X hour then I needed to start earlier than after X hour to have it completed by that time. I could tell she was upset and frustrated with me and I apologised and said I wasn't trying to make things more difficult for her but was just trying to stick to the hours of the contract that I had only been made aware of the day before.
Next day back at work was this morning and I was called to the office to speak to the owner.
She said I was clearly unhappy here and it was best I went elsewhere. She said I was making other staff members uncomfortable and made it about me not being a team player and not understanding the ethos of the business.
I tried to explain that at no point had I been made aware of the unpaid time and I was just advocating for my rights as an employee as I respected their time and that I was following the advice of Citizens information to only work the hours outlined to me in the contract. I also explained that I was really happy here other than this issue. She said no one else had a problem working this way and that in 30 years of operating like this it hadn't been a problem to anyone else.
What upset me most was making out that I was making other staff members uncomfortable, the only person this could have been with was the manager on the day before when I had started finishing tasks early. I feel like it's so manipulative to turn advocating for your rights as an employee to be turned into an issue of you being difficult and not a team player and not respecting your colleagues (also unpaid) time.
I feel so disappointed to have lost a job I really enjoyed and its making me feel hopeless, like were all so used to exploitation and neglect of our rights as employees that asking for these rights to be respected is seen as trouble making for everyone else.
Don't know what I really want from posting here. Just feel so disappointed and don't know what to do now 🙁