Workers in the United States work more hours annually than in any other industrialized country. The number of hours Americans are working is on the rise, including hours spent working overtime. Nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce is now working more than a 40-hour week. This increase in overtime work, however, can have adverse impacts on workers themselves and their families. There is mounting evidence that excessive overtime and extended hours of work can be hazardous to workers health, leading to increases in on-the-job injury rates and worker fatigue.
Many unions are now using language in their collective bargaining agreements to address issues related to overtime. These contract provisions particularly address mandatory overtime situations where the employers want to force workers to work the additional hours under the threat of disciplinary measures when workers refuse. This contract language is designed to put some limits and restrictions on the employer’s ability to make working overtime hours mandatory while still permitting workers to make a voluntary choice to accept an offer to work additional hours.
Below are examples of contract language that have put limits on the employer’s use of mandatory overtime and provide protection for workers when they refuse. If you have problems with mandatory overtime at your workplace, these examples can help your union negotiate improved protections for your members.
Overtime Is Completely Voluntary
There will be no mandatory overtime.
United American Nurses
All overtime shall be voluntary and shall be performed only after authorization by the company. —Saskatchewan Joint Board, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, Locals 454 and 480
Overtime (…) shall be on a voluntary basis, i.e., an employee shall not be obliged to perform such work unless he agrees to do so. —Steelworkers, Local 7884
No nurse shall be disciplined for refusal to work overtime. —UAN and contracts with hospitals in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn.
Management agrees that overtime work shall be kept to a minimum. It is further agreed that overtime work shall be voluntary and that no employee shall be compelled to work overtime or shall be discriminated against for refusal to work overtime. —United Food and Commercial, Local 248-P
All overtime shall be voluntary and employees requesting time off when overtime is scheduled shall not be penalized or suffer loss of seniority. —UFCW, Local 2000
Notwithstanding any provisions of the general laws to the contrary, no health care facility shall require any employee to accept work in excess of eight (8) hours per day or in excess of forty (40) hours per week, the acceptance of such work in excess of forty (40) hours per week or eight (8) hours per day shall be strictly voluntary, and the refusal of any employee to accept such overtime work shall not be a grounds for discrimination, dismissal or discharge or any other penalty upon the employee. —Model Language, Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT
Overtime Is Voluntary And Based On Seniority/Availability
The Publisher and the Guild mutually agree that compulsory overtime work shall be avoided wherever feasible. An employee has the right to request excuse from overtime, and this shall be granted unless no other appropriate employee is available. —Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, Communications Workers of America, Local No. 32035
The Hospital shall not require employees to work mandatory overtime. In the event that overtime work is required, the hospital shall offer shifts or hours of work on a voluntary basis, whether the employee is scheduled or unscheduled, to qualified employees in the classification where the overtime work is required. The hospital shall offer this work to employees based upon hospital seniority in the classification involved on a rotating basis. —District 1199P, SEIU
If too few employees volunteer, the employees with the least seniority among those responsible for the work will be assigned overtime. —Paperworkers Union of Canada, Local 501
In addition, a voluntary overtime system shall be established by the Employer as follows: Annually regular employees shall be given the opportunity to elect whether they wish to decline overtime work after eight (8) hours or the sixth (6th) or seventh (7th) day for the succeeding twelve-month period. If an employee elects to decline to work overtime, he will not be offered, nor can he claim, overtime work during the succeeding twelve-month period, subject, however, to the limitation that no more than 25% of the employees of the Employer in eachclassification and on each shift and in each department where separate seniority has historically been established may make such an election. If more than 25% wish to make such an election, selection will be made by seniority. The election to decline overtime work shall not be effective during any week in which this Agreement provides for paid holiday. —Teamsters, Local 630
Overtime Is Voluntary Except in Emergency Situations
Overtime work shall be voluntary except for work of an emergency nature. —USWA, Local 7619
Mandatory Overtime:
a. Employees will not be required to work overtime against their wishes, except in emergencies where the companies operations cannot otherwise be maintained.
b. No employee will be forced to work overtime until all readily available employees within the basic classification have been offered an opportunity to work the overtime hours. Readily available means 1) employees who are currently at work, and if there are insufficient volunteers from among those employees, then 2) employees who are not at work but based upon time and proximity could reasonably be expected to cover the overtime if they were available.
c. Mandatory overtime will be limited to the number of employees and hours required to cover the emergency.
d. Mandatory overtime will be assigned in inverse seniority order to the junior qualified employee(s). —Machinists (for public contact employees)
Mandatory Overtime:
The hospital has the right to require overtime provided it is of reasonable duration, commensurate with employee health, safety and endurance and the direction is issued under reasonable circumstances.
Employees will be required to work emergency overtime only in cases of unforeseen emergent circumstances and only when the following alternatives have been employed without success and are documented. Such documentation shall be available to the union.
1. Volunteers sought from all available staff, including per diem.
2. Outside agency personnel are utilized.
In the event that no one is available, the supervisor may require employees on a rotating basis, in order of reverse seniority, to work emergency overtime and only for the time necessary to meet the emergency. If the employee works more than one-half of an extra consecutive shift, the time worked for the entire extra shift shall be paid at time and one-half of pay. —Health Professionals and Allied Employees, AFT, Local 5091
It is the intent of management to restrict any non-voluntary overtime to emergency situations. The following examples are presented to illustrate the types of emergencies which may result in non-voluntary overtime:
· Internal or external disaster;
· A serious change in a patient’s condition that necessitates; immediate and temporary additional nursing care, such as a Code Blue or like situation; and
· A case in the Operating Room that is already in progress and staff needs to stay to completion.
It is understood, prior to instituting this, that management will exhaust all other alternatives. If assignment is necessary it will be made in order of reverse seniority. —SEIU, Local 535
Limitations on Mandatory Overtime
The Company will give reasonable consideration to an employee’s timely request to be excused.
1. An employee will not be required to work more than a total of seven and one-half (7.5) hours overtime in any payroll week except in case of emergency (as referenced in the overtime administration letter of understanding), long term service difficulties or employee consent to such overtime. For purposes of computing the 7.5 hour limits, both voluntary and mandatory overtime will count towards those limits. Upon request, the Union will assist in securing volunteers to work overtime.
2. The Company will give reasonable consideration to an employee’s timely request to be excused.
3. The parties recognize that long term service difficulties for an extended period may develop from time to time during which suspension of the above overtime limitations would be appropriate. In the event such service difficulties develop, the Company and the Union will meet to discuss the problem and determine how to best deal with the situation.
No mandatory overtime will be assigned to Service Representatives/Consultants with less than 24 hours notice before the start of the tour in which the overtime is to be worked to the affected employee, except for the following situations:
1. To complete calls and/or clear calls in queue at the end of a tour, or
2. Extenuating service conditions, in which case the Company will contact the Union in advance to explain the situation.
3. Emergency conditions as defined in the existing contract provisions on overtime “caps”. —CWA
These examples of contract language that put limits on the employer’s use of mandatory overtime are provided to help your union negotiate improved protections for your members. If your union has negotiated contract language that is effective in placing restrictions on the employer’s use of mandatory overtime, please share it with us so that we can share it with other unions. Send copies of the mandatory overtime contract provisions to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health, AFL-CIO, 815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006.
Prepared by: AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department, September 2002
