TIME OFF

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 87, 12 April 1923, Page 8

TIME OFF

POSTAL OFFICERS' OBJECTIONS

CASH PAYMENT FOR OVERTIME. ■ • .. ■.- • r " One of the real bugbears of the Service at the present time is the system of giving time off in lieu of cash pay-; ment for Sunday, holiday,, and other j special duties," says the " Katipo," the ; official organ of the Post and Telegraph , Officers' Association. " The ' time-off' system is a source of annoyance to those '- to whom it is due, and to those who j have to arrange for the working off ' of what is due. . The sooner an end is put to it,', the happier • will .be all j concerned. There is no equitable departure from the law. that encroachment on the private time, of all persons should be compensated for in the manner most acceptable to the Eerson sacrificing - the time. On this asis, fully 90 per cent, of the Service demands that nil overtime should be compensated for in cash. The law does not- allow the private concern to i work its employees outside ■ recog- ! nised hours without paying for the extra duty, and yet the authority which enforces this rule on the private employer — the Government— breaks it every. Sunday and holiday where its own Post and Telegraph employees are concerned. There are cases where officers are working every other Sunday, two Sundays out I of three, every holiday, and the con-! sequent ' time: off ' due is granted in dribs and drabs to their utter discomfiture. For the services they render the Department charges a cash consideration, but while it insists on cash from its customers, it will not listen to demands for the same consideration from its employees. {. . .No one i desires to see officers turned out of their employment because cash payment for overtime is wanted, but, on the other hand, cash payment for overtime should take the place of ' time off' at the earliest possible moment, and especially is this 'the case when Sunday and holiday duty is required. The officer employed has no option but to perform the duty, and the Department should have no option but to pay cash for the hours put in the moment staffs are down to normal requirements. We look to the Postmas-ter-General to bring the change about, more especially as he is able to forecast j a surplus of £700,000 of revenue over '■ expenditure."