united-kingdom employment
UK - Can a company ask employees to attend meetings on their own personal time, during normal work hours?
<p>The meetings are training sessions for software that we use in our day to day, discussions about best practices, talking about learnings from a project etc. So not directly chargeable to a customer.</p>
<p>Previously, the meetings were charged to an &quot;overhead&quot; - but due to the company not meeting its financial targets, we can no longer do so.</p>
<p>Because the time can't be charged to a customer, we are being asked to attend the meetings in our own time. However, the meetings are during normal work hours.
Is this legal in the UK?</p>

<h2>Yes, they can ask</h2>
<p>Provided you attendance is voluntary and there are no negative repercussions (other than missing the learning opportunity) for not attending. If you <em>have</em> to go, they <em>have</em> to pay you.</p>
