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Davies Ndumiso Sibanda
OVERTIME compensations disputes are one of those disputes between employers and workers that will not end with employers wanting free labour and workers wanting to make more money through overtime.

The Labour Act Chapter 28:01 provides for overtime payment at double the normal rate for employees who work on public holidays.

Simply put, it means that if Mary earns $10 a day and she is called by the employer to work overtime on a public holiday, she would earn $10 she would earn while at home plus $20 for working on a public holiday. That means Mary will earn $30 in total for the day.

Overtime payment for other occasions is guided by NEC Collective Bargaining Agreements and internal overtime policy or agreement.

The bottom-line is that no employee should work for no pay whether the employee is managerial or not. Some employers have told managerial employees that they are on duty 24 hours.

Such statements are reckless as when a dispute arises they come back to haunt the employer with others demanding to be paid overtime.

Usually with managerial employees overtime demands arise after dismissal. In many cases the employee will be able to provide evidence of work leaving the court with no choice but to order payment.

Where an employee works overtime he is entitled to be paid overtime pay and where the employer decides to grant the employee time off contrary to the Collective Bargaining Agreement provisions, the employer should first secure agreement of workers to work for time off instead of money.

Threatening workers with dismissal if they refuse time off does not help because in the event of workers taking legal action, the employer is likely to lose.

The majority of workers are reasonable and are unlikely to refuse to work for time off if approached correctly.

However, the employer also needs to recognise that many lower level employees would prefer money and compromises have to be made. Poorly designed overtime policies are a recipe for conflict. It is advisable for the employer to have an overtime policy that talks to the circumstance of his business and where possible an agreement is even better as long as it can be amended when the need arises.

Care has also to be taken not to create an overtime reliance syndrome where overtime becomes part of the workers’ monthly wages as it might be difficult to scrap such overtime. There are however cases where provision of overtime is a win-win for both the workers and management.

The company might realise that its beneficial to pay overtime than to hire additional staff and this is encouraged but must be guided by a clear policy.

There are cases where workers slow down work during normal working time so as to force overtime.

In my view such conduct is not in the interest of both the business and workers as in the long term it could sink the business.

A new approach to overtime in many towns today involves workers who are also entrepreneurs who work overtime and prefer time off in order to do private business during time off.

This is common with workers who want to go outside the country to buy items for re-sell, technical workers who want to do private jobs and others who want to do financial rewarding jobs such as farming.

In conclusion, employers have to put in place clear overtime policies that help protect the business from overtime related litigation.

*Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on: Email: [email protected]