Еңбеккерлердің қосымша жұмыс істеуден бас тарту акциясы

Type of strike action

Overtime bans are a type of strike in which workers refuse to engage in overtime work, being any work that falls outside of contracted hours. They do this to leverage their employer into negotiating various working conditions. Often organised in unions, workers may choose this form of industrial action to bargain for a higher rate of pay, better working conditions or to discourage an employer from making redundancies. However, the legalities of overtime bans do vary between countries. Overtime bans are effective where "industries and organisations run on such habitually high levels of overtime or goodwill that overtime bans can have a significant and immediate impact upon the availability of a good or service". Historically, unions have at times received criticism on ethical grounds for choosing to enact overtime bans. The literature records the occurrence of such bans from the 1800s and there is documentation of their use in four continents.

Employees use overtime bans to protest their working conditions and pay. They may also be used to demonstrate to employers that more staff members are needed or that no staff can afford to be let go. Where an employer intends to make redundancies, an overtime ban may be an effective way for workers to persuade their employer into changing their course of action.

Unions frequently sanction and organise overtime bans. They are often responsible for helping workers to agree on the logistics of a ban. Where an industry wide overtime ban must be carried out at multiple individual places of work, unions play an especially important role in helping workers to act in a unified way. An example of this occurred when three broadcasting unions known at ACTT, BETA and EETPU collaborated to impose an overtime ban on an English production company called HTV in 1990. They were protesting the planned redundancy of 85 workers. Workers had been chronically dissatisfied with the rate of pay after the government had set a limit for industry pay increases of 5%. "This action must and will go ahead. We cannot back down without a serious win. We want a one year real terms pay rise, no compulsory redundancies and no more bullying and will not accept a trade off between these demands. We should all join picket lines. Branches should plan them, bring new people, make it fun! We need a strategy to win RMT needs to set more strikes to show we are serious and pile pressure on management. 'Action short of strike' can keep momentum between strikes: 'work to rule', overtime ban, revenue strike. Think what action could have an impact where you work, and feed it back to the union." It stipulated that nurses would not be acting criminally if they refused to engage in work beyond their contracted 40 hour week. The pilots were motivated to enact the ban because they felt that issues regarding their contracts – including problems related to "wages, job security and benefits" – had not been satisfactorily addressed by United Airlines during the negotiation period. In the case of Silver Oak Tanneries t/a Silverton Tannery v Garment & Allied Workers Union (October 1989 (case NH 12/3/286), however, the court found that "preventing an overtime ban would amount to compelling an employee to commit a criminal offence forcing him to work without consent". The Unions are typically well organised and hold a great deal of power over employers, who understand that employees are loyal to their union and are likely to carry out the industrial action that they threaten. Passengers who had scheduled flights were advised to pack minimal luggage that could fit in overhead storage space because staff responsible for baggage handling duties were not engaging in overtime duties. The union formed after the Banking, Insurance and Finance Unions at big clearing banks including NatWest, Barclays, Lloyds and Midland joined forces. It stipulates that employers cannot withhold wages from employees who engage in overtime bans if they are not breaking their contractual obligations. They were imposed by employees who had a "long history of organisation and mobilisation". The Irish Minister for Health, Simon Harris, considered this to be an irresponsible decision that put vulnerable people at risk due to the lack of care available to them during the strike period. He felt that "the ongoing chaos on Southern rail services is a total disgrace that is badly failing commuters who just want to get to work and back. The unions should cancel the strikes and get back around the negotiating table, but the government are washing their hands of this crisis and abandoning commuters in the process." It is not uncommon for overtime bans to attract scrutiny.