OCR Text |
Show Overtime Pay for All or None It is peculiar to hear all of the- discussions regarding overtime pay to city employees when the men in our two most essential departments depart-ments never receive extra pay for extra hours. Members of both the police and fire departments put in thousands of hours of overtime each year and have never received more than a "thank you" and seldom even that much. There are many occasions when men in the parks department, water department, and street department must work overtime and they should without doubt be paid for overtime when the work is essential. But if they deserve the extra pay how could it ever be justified" not to pay policemen and firemen for overtime work? Extra duty itself implies work that is more hazaraous for the fireman or policeman than is normal. Employees in either thefire or police department are on call and in reality on duty 24 hours a day. Even if this is their sworn obligation it doesn't lessen our obligations to them. When a city is fortunate in having these two fine departments, as Salt Lake does, it is often too easy to forget the men therein and pay attention to the departments that do not give up to standard service. Nothing could bemore true than "the squeaking wheel receives the grease." When one considers that our policemen and firemen are certainly not over paid and have to furnish their own uniforms, which are quite costly, they should certainly receive the sane consideration in overtime over-time pay as any other city employee. How it can be determined that some city employees are to receive overtime pay, and not policemen or firemen is impossible to understand. |