20th April 2010, 07:40 PM
Quite right about my maths, i winced when i read my post back in the cold light of day. My only excuse is it had been a long day and i was feeling pretty .... debauched.
The Invisible Man has really raised the question i was trying to highlight. Which is that if your overtime is paid at your standard rate, are we likely to see a rise in what effectively become the standard working hours? While overtime is not forced, I have worked on sites where pressure was certainly put on employees to work additional hours.
As people have pointed out long hours particularly on pipelines are part of the job, but so too has been overtime pay for those long hours. The basic hourly rate of a digger is not sufficient to make long hours in the summer and a lay-off in the winter a feasible option, and certainly not if addition pay for overtime is not paid.
My worry is that if this situation is expected and accepted due to the recession, in time it will become the norm and conditions will stay the same when the recession is over.
The Invisible Man has really raised the question i was trying to highlight. Which is that if your overtime is paid at your standard rate, are we likely to see a rise in what effectively become the standard working hours? While overtime is not forced, I have worked on sites where pressure was certainly put on employees to work additional hours.
As people have pointed out long hours particularly on pipelines are part of the job, but so too has been overtime pay for those long hours. The basic hourly rate of a digger is not sufficient to make long hours in the summer and a lay-off in the winter a feasible option, and certainly not if addition pay for overtime is not paid.
My worry is that if this situation is expected and accepted due to the recession, in time it will become the norm and conditions will stay the same when the recession is over.