Media Clipping — April 27, 2004, The Daily News

Workers doing ‘staggering’ amount of unpaid overtime, report says

By Chris Lambie

Nearly two-thirds of Nova Scotians who work overtime aren't getting paid for it, according to a report released yesterday by Halifax think-tank GPI Atlantic.

In a typical week in 2001, salaried employees worked about 373,000 overtime hours for no extra pay, says the report.

"It's a staggering number, and these people are doing it for free," said Linda Pannozzo, the report's main author.

Only 38 per cent of Nova Scotians who work overtime get paid for it, says the report. About 59 percent of workers who work overtime - many of them teachers and managers - aren't compensated for the extra effort.

Overtime increased 15 per cent in both this province and nation-wide between 1997 and 2001, says the 500-page report.

"If all overtime hours were converted to new full-time jobs, admittedly not an easy task, there would be half-a-million fewer unemployed Canadians and 16,000 fewer unemployed Nova Scotians," says the report.

"If every one of these jobs were filled from the ranks of the officially unemployed, it would reduce unemployment in Nova Scotia by 35 per cent."

Part-time employment in Nova Scotia increased to 17.8 of all employees in 2001, from 12.5 per cent in 1976, says the report, which recommends doing away with "systemic disincentives to new hiring" such as payroll taxes.

"Part-time work in and of itself is not necessarily problematic, especially when chosen voluntarily and when accompanied by decent hourly pay and job security," it says.

"However, many Canadians who do work part-time would rather be working full time, but are unable to find full-time work."

Standards for paid vacations should be increased, says the report.

"European countries can provide working models of industrialized economies in which dramatically longer vacations and shorter annual work hours do not imperil high productivity, prosperity and a high standard of living," it says.

Reducing working time by 10 per cent for current employees would free up 1.6 million hours of work in this province, says the report.

Those extra hours could create as many as 20,000 new jobs in Nova Scotia, it says.

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