Costs of Forced Overtime Too High

Harrisburg, January 10 -- Workers, employers and consumers are paying too high a price for mandatory overtime, according to Time After Time: Mandatory Overtime in the U.S. Economy, released today by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI), and co-authored by Penn State economist Lonnie Golden.

The estimated cost of mandatory overtime to industry is between $150 and $300 billion per year -- largely the result of problems related worker stress and fatigue according to the report. The study finds that almost one-third of the American workforce works more than 40 hours and one-fifth work more than 50 hours per week.

The report notes that mandatory overtime is a widespread practice in hospitals and can lead to situations that may jeopardize the health of patients.

The study cites a national survey or nurses found 56 percent believe the time they have for each patient has decreased and 75 percent feel that the quality of patient care in their workplace has declined in the last two years. Medical residents cite fatigue as a reason for their most serious mistakes in 4 out of 10 cases.

Nurses aides, the report notes, are second only to truck drivers in the total number of cases of disabling injuries and illnesses attributed to excessive overtime.

The problems of overtime in hospitals are all too familiar to Eileen Connelly, Secretary Treasurer of SEIU district 1199, which represents 16,000 health care workers in Pennsylvania. "Mandatory overtime is driving nurses and other healthcare workers out of hospitals and has become one of the chief causes for the serious shortage of healthcare workers. Hospitals should not be allowed to use forced overtime to compensate for insufficient staffing."

The Pennsylvania General Assembly is currently considering two bills (House Bill 1959 and Senate Bill 1002) that would ban mandatory overtime for all health workers, except in case of an emergency.

The EPI report cites a number of recent studies that show mandatory overtime degrade worker and public safety and worker health. These studies show that accident rates increase during overtime hours.

Frequent overtime have also been found to be factor in the development of chronic health problems, including cardiovascular disease, depression and sleep disorders.

According to Dr. Stephen Herzenberg, Executive Director of the Keystone Research Center there is more than ample reason for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to consider regulating mandatory overtime for all workers.

"Mandatory overtime can play havoc with the family lives of workers," says Herzenberg. "This is the 21st Century. We need to give workers the option of making their families and their health a higher priority than having to work additional hours at the command of their employers."

"Employers and the economy would also benefit from such regulations," he said, noting that the EPI report cites evidence that mandatory overtime harms businesses in the long run by decreasing quality and productivity.