Britain’s police constables are in some cases more than doubling their salaries by making large overtime claims.
“12,000 PCs claimed more than £6,000 each in overtime last year – a 20% increase on their salaries” (The Independent – 17 August). Is that so bad? If you were employing people and allowed them to earn an additional 20%, would you be happy? What’s the paradox here?
Using overtime can give you flexibility, allow companies to deal with short term bottlenecks, staff shortages and overall it could give you much greater productivity.
However, premium overtime rates may be applicable, and regular use of overtime could lead to expectations that it will continue. Expectations often cause more morale problems than reality.
“Police overtime is believed to cost £485 million a year”. What is the overall pay budget? Is there an overall pay budget in your business? If you paid overtime because you were selling more, how would you feel? Is police overtime spending well controlled? How well controlled is your overtime and contractor spend? You would, of course, not have let the arrested officer claim his time in the cells as overtime (yes that’s in the article) – but as Business Coaches we know local business owners who aren’t sure they have total control over overtime payments.
“For officers to double their salaries they would have to work at least 50% more, so officers on a 40 hours week would have to work 60 or 70 hours a week hours”. Are you allowed to make your staff to do this? Are you confused by things like the working time directive? The UK retained its’ right to allow workers to opt out of a maximum 48 hour working week in April. This link gives some more details. Chartered Management Institute research shows that of people who work long hours, 41 per cent believe it makes them get angry with others too easily, while 23 per cent report experiencing difficulty in making decisions (Independent 18/8/09)
“Many PCs are earning more than chief inspectors and superintendants” – now this line may provoke more responses! Would you allow your staff to earn enough overtime to earn more than you? Logically one might say if it’s in the best interest of the business, and it’s efficient to do so, but we all know people wedded to the trappings and hierarchy of “being the boss”.
So, its a great headline, maybe suggesting a bigger problem than there is, but it does make one look at the paradox around employing people in your business from a different angle.
What do you think about the issues it raises, how do you cope with peaks and troughs in demand in your business?
No related posts.
