First off, the laws in my country specify that extra work or overtime is to be compensated with your hourly wage (+40% for overtime) unless the employee has agreed to get extra time off hour for hour. We also get 5 weeks paid vacation every year. And we have 3 months notices that goes both ways unless the employer can no longer afford to pay you in which case they owe you your last monthly paycheck and your paid vacation if you haven’t used it.
So with that out of the way I’ll tell you the story.
I worked part time at a place with very flexible hours except from a 4 hour window every week which suited me perfectly at the time. I liked the job and didn’t mind working a little extra here and there to complete tasks, since that’s me choosing to work extra without clearing it with the boss that’s not paud extra and I was fine with that because as I said I liked the job.
But at one point I was asked to work almost three times what I was supposed to for a whole month. I agreed thinking that would be a nice paycheck. The time for my paycheck came and went and there was no extra money. I talked to my boss about it and he said he hadn’t agreed to give me any extra money. After some arguing back and forth he wanted to have a meeting with me and the accountant. I brought a union rep with me because I understood where this was heading.
They told me it was costumary for the employees to use extra hours to take time off. I then explained to them that with the extra work I had accumulated 2 months off and due to the nature of my work I would never be able to actually take that time off, pluss I hadn’t agreed to wave the right to being compensated in extra pay. They then told me that wasn’t their problem, and they didn’t think they could afford to pay me if I couldn’t work extra without being paid. Then I told them that’s fine but then I’m turning in my 3 months notice and using all my time off and my holiday so I wouldn’t have to turn up but they would still have to pay me for the 3 remaining months while also hiring and paying for a replacement. Long story short they ended up paying me what they owed and I quit right after.
TLDR: I strongarmed my employer into paying me and quit.