*From:* Roland Perry
*Date:* Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:16:23 +0100

In message , at
11:53:32 on Mon, 25 Jul 2011, David Cantrell
remarked:
Drivers are not allowed to do overtime (the unions won't allow
it)

Why do the unions have any say in the matter? If a driver wants
to work
overtime, and his manager has work for him to do, then it seems
crazy to
stop them.

You seem to be overlooking the "collective" in Collective
Bargaining.

If the unions have decided that they'd prefer more jobs (which
equates to more subs and also an easier sell that every member
needs a 'living wage' without overtime), rather than fewer jobs
with flexibility via overtime, then everyone gets lumbered with
that decision.
--
Roland Perry

That always seems to be the union's argument, whenever this has been
brought up.

Another side to whether overtime (in the form of rest day working) is
worked or not is the effect from a company's point of view. It's probably
cheaper to pay overtime than recruit extra staff. The cost of more staff
being much higher than existing staff working overtime (because of all
sorts of overheads such as uniform, nation insurance etc.}.
For a company, staff working overtime is probably a more flexible way of
covering additional work, temporary vacancies etc.

Like staff getting used to more pay, companies get used to their staff
working overtime. This can have a bad side, as the FCC work to rule last
year(?) proved, with the large amount of trains that were being frequently
cancelled due to no staff available. Because it takes so long to train
staff up, they can't suddenly say "we'll stop rest day working". They have
to allow up to six months for new, additional drivers to be trained up.

Roger