Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 48


     
     1        29.  In some industries 37 hours a week was the calculation
     2        as the cut off before getting overtime.
     3
     4        Obviously, his view as an expert was -- page 49, line 45 --
     5        that "overtime should be paid to reward long hours."  But
     6        at the same time he was not encouraging long hours because
     7        they are associated with high absence rates through
     8        sickness, associated with unsafe working conditions and
     9        stress -- sorry, with unsafe working and stress and other
    10        factors.  Then he says, bottom of page 49, "You do get long
    11        hours in low paid sectors."  The temptation, obviously, is
    12        from the employees' perspective to work that which is on
    13        offer and sometimes without choice because you need the
    14        money.  That is the bottom of page 49.
    15
    16        Now, on the top of page 50, he says that apparently, from
    17        the figures he had seen regarding McDonald's and their lack
    18        of payment of overtime, it appears -- and he was being very
    19        cautious about this -- from the figures to be systematic
    20        abuse, systematic underpayments.  As someone who had been
    21        on the wages council he was very alarmed by what was put in
    22        front of him in the witness box.  He was not very impressed
    23        with the idea that it may, may, and it clearly does not,
    24        but that it may kind of by chance, if someone was working
    25        premium hours, they might go above the minimum statutory
    26        overtime rate.  He was not impressed with that at all.  As
    27        we have heard the premium hours rates are very small, and
    28        the overtime being time and a half would mean that you
    29        would have to work a hell of a lot of premium hours within
    30        your time before you would reach the overtime time and a
    31        half differential.  It is just not possible, and what
    32        happened to Mr. Alimi clearly happened to tens of thousands
    33        of other employees throughout the whole period in which
    34        overtime was compulsory.
    35
    36        He said that wages inspectors have their work cut out.
    37        They had 110 of them in 1987, covering 2.3 million workers
    38        and 430,000 work places nationwide.  So, the major
    39        employees would be contacted by post or questionnaire.  And
    40        there might be a follow-up interview with a senior
    41        personnel officer, he said at page 51, line 38.
    42
    43        If then it had been known that a substantial minority, one
    44        in 20 -- which, as we know is one in four of all
    45        full-timers -- one in 20 of a major employer such as
    46        McDonald's did work overtime, then there would have been an
    47        inquiry.
    48
    49        Of course, there are other provisions in the overtime
    50        regulations, where, if you work on a rest day you should
    51        get double time and, also, there should be time and
    52        one-eighth between 7.00 and 11.00 p.m., time and a quarter
    53        between 11.00 p.m. and 7.00 a.m.  So, it is not as if
    54        McDonald's shift premiums were anything to write home
    55        about.  Mr. Pearson said they would be incorporated into
    56        the overtime provisions regulations.
    57
    58        He said, at page 53, line 14:  "The survey methods of wage
    59        inspectors might well not have ever have identified this
    60        problem."

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