Vol. 432 No. 1
195 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the total number of hours of over-time worked, in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available, by persons employed by his Department or by public bodies under the aegis of his Department; the proportion this represents of total man hours worked; and the impact the proposed EC Directive on working hours will have on reducing this level of overtime.
The information requested by the Deputy is not available in terms of overtime hours worked. However, the cost of overtime worked by staff of my Department during the 12 months of 1992 was £420,787. This represents approximately 1.3 per cent of total payroll costs of £31.6 million in that period. Overtime worked by staff of public bodies under the aegis of my Department is a matter for the day-to-day running of such bodies.
At this early stage no major difficulties are foreseen in the implementation of the proposed directive on the organisation of working time. However, it remains to be seen how reductions in overtime can be accommodated while maintaining operational services, particularly in shift work areas.
