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HR CASE for your spring 2004 syllabus: Forced Overtime at Kellogg

  • 1.  HR CASE for your spring 2004 syllabus: Forced Overtime at Kellogg

    Posted 11-30-2003 06:48
    http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/news/stories/20031130/localnews/736267.ht
    ml

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    EXCERPT:

    If workers are older than 18 years of age, there is no law requiring
    companies to limit the number of hours worked, except in certain professions
    such as airline pilots and truck drivers, said Satish Deshpande, a
    management professor at Western Michigan University.
    "There is a general trend toward more forced overtime simply because the
    only other option is to hire more people," Deshpande said.
    Time-and-a-half payment for overtime came into place in U.S. corporations in
    the 1930s to encourage companies to hire more workers rather than have
    employees work overtime.
    These days, though, hiring a full-time worker and providing benefits is more
    expensive than paying workers time-and-a-half, Deshpande said. And if a
    company invests the time and money to train workers, the investment is lost
    if there isn't enough work for them to do.
    "The safest way is to have people work overtime ... and make sure you have
    the business in place before hiring people," Deshpande said.
    Hiring more people is not what Kellogg wants to do, believes one employee,
    54-year-old Bruce Warren of East Leroy.
    "The company's grasping at straws any way they can not to hire people," said
    Warren, a line operator.
    Being required to work some weekend shifts is enough, Warren said. The
    prospect of forced daily overtime, on top of weekend work, doesn't sit well
    with him.

    Cybercollegially,
    Charles Wankel, St. John's University, New York
    RMED series http://management-education.net