OVERTIME RATES IN PUBLIC SERVICE: NEW PROVISIONS

Grey River Argus, 15 April 1948, Page 6

OVERTIME RATES IN PUBLIC SERVICE: NEW PROVISIONS

WELLINGTON, April 13.

Overtime and penal rates of pay as provided by the Factories Act, 1946 are to be applied with certain limitations to all departments of the Public Service under the control of the Public Service Commission. The new rates will operate as from April 1, This concession has been made in answer to claims presented by the the Public Service Association. It is expected to be a substantial gain to thousands of public servants. Overtime provisions are to be more liberal and the principal of penal rates for workers rostered for weekend duty is now introduced to the public service. The commission is at present studying the problems arising from such a far-reaching decision and it may not be possible for some time to determine exactly how all categories of workers will now be affected. Penal time under the new provisions means any time worked on Saturday afternoon, Sunday, or a whole holiday. The penal rate for an v such time worked, will be half time for Saturday afternoon, Sunday or a whole holiday. The penal rate for any such time worked will be half time for -Saturday afternoons, ordinary time for Sundays, and double time for whole holidays, in addition to the ordinary week s salary. They will not apply to farm workers except in certain circumstances. WEEK-END WORKERS

Ordinary five-day-a-week workers are not affected by the week-end provisions, which benefit roster workers and others who nominally work on Saturdays and Sundays. There are thousands of such workers in the service, including mental hygiene nursing staffs, prison warders, broadcasting workers, Internal Affairs Department cleaners, lighthouse keepers, and varous groups in >Jie Air and Broadcasting Departments. Many hydro-electric worker? are already being paid penal rates, as they were covered by the Factories Act. Overtime rates will now be paid in general for work in excess of eight hours a day or 40 hours a week. This will not apply in the meantime, however, to those on irregular rosters as for example where ‘iong’ and ‘short’ weeks alternate, or ‘long’ days are compensated for by days off. It is hoped in most of these cases to change over to more regular rosters from May 1. Other principal alternatves affecting overtime payments are the lifting of the limitation on hourly rates to 10s, the removal altogether of the limitation on yearly earnings and the payent of overtime to supervising officers in the same way as to other staff.

The more liberal overtime provisions will be accompanied by stringent measures to ensure that, abuses of overtime are not permitted. The Public Service Commission, when claims were first presented by the Public Sendee Association, alleged that there was abuse of overtime in the service. A comment made in the Public Service Journal,” which sets out the new provisions, says they do not satisfy in full the association’s claims. They do, however, represent _ very substantial gains which will directly benefit a large proportion of the association’s membership.