Labour Court recommends proportional sharing of Diamond Innovations overtime

The Labour Court recommended changes to overtime allocation between permanent and temporary staff at Diamond Innovations. The recommendation was signed on 25 September 2012. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union argued that permanent staff should have equal access to overtime after accepting reductions in pay and conditions. Diamond Innovations said temporary staff were paid less, making overtime for them more cost-effective. The Court recommended that non-obligatory overtime be shared in proportion to the numbers in each staff category. Any overtime not taken up by one category should then be offered to the other on a rotational basis agreed by the parties. For staff covered by the 2009 Annualised Hours Agreement, it recommended calculating overtime pay by dividing weekly pay by 46.92 and multiplying by 1.5. The Court proposed no change to the existing arrangements for the 43.4-hour week or the standard 40-hour week for agency workers and new staff.