Service sector unions PAM and Suora campaign against uncompensated overtime work

(Helsinki 15.08.2006 – Juhani Artto) Many employees work long hours without due compensation. The Service union united PAM and the finance and insurance sector union Suora are campaigning rigourously against this way of things and the injustice inherent in it. The unions estimate that, in the private service sector, uncompensated overtime work matches over 5,000 full-time jobs. As part of their campaign the unions distribute material on the problem in an effort to stimulate discussion at workplaces.

The campaigners remind us that even a non-kept pause is a form of uncompensated overtime work.

Often employees agree to work without compensation a few extra minutes or hours to please superiors or to avoid being labelled as a difficult person. Shop stewards and fellow employees must gently persuade these people to break this habit.

Thinking of those who are unemployed or with a shortage of work it would be only reasonable to refuse to work overtime without compensation, the campaigning unions stress.

PAM – www.pam.fi/in_english

Suora – www.ammattiliittosuora.fi/Resource.phx/english/index.htx

This article was first published in English in Trade Union News in Finland.