FOLLOWING industrial action in November, an interim settlement with unions at the Department of Agriculture last December resulted in 1,378 staff being paid overtime of £825,868, of which £778,029 was paid in the week ending December 21st, 1995.
By April of this year, 208 staff still had not worked the overtime for which they had been paid, while 78 had not submitted any overtime claim at all.
Further, "cases arose where overtime was claimed for days where the staff member did not undertake normal hours of duty, including two cases where staff were recorded as being on sick leave".
No specific record was kept by the Department of the actual overtime hours staff had worked. An automatic time recording system (flexitime) is operated at the Department and it only records basic hours of attendance. Overtime is usually paid following claims by staff and certification by a supervisor.
In some cases also, "the overtime claimed exceeded the overtime which could have been worked with the time indicated". In other cases "there was an overlap of time which was claimed both as basic time and overtime".
Under the terms of the December settlement, staff had agreed to work afternoon hours (which they had stopped doing) in return for up to 56 hours overtime, to be offered to all members and extended to more senior grades. The overtime was to be undertaken in all sections of the Department, and involved working 20 hours a week, Monday to Friday, plus eight hours on Saturday, with payment to made before Christmas.
The Department's accounting officer told the Comptroller and Auditor General that, as of June 30th this year, Just 80 case remained where overtime had not been worked. He also said that 108 cases had come to light where the same time had been claimed "on both systems."
He said that "because of the commercial implications" a policy decision was made to resolve the dispute (there) last year "as a matter of paramount importance". The settlement terms negotiated, including the advance payments, were authorised on that basis.
