Despite severe personal and professional stresses caused by mandatory overtime, many employers still continue to demand longer-than-standard hours from workers in an attempt to reign in immediate costs and maintain adequate staff, according to a recent study co-authored by a Penn State researcher.

Lonnie Golden, associate professor of economics at Penn State Delaware County, and Helene Jorgensen, research associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, found that several industries, including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, transportation and communication had 25 percent or more of the workforce working longer-than-standard hours on a regular basis. Emergency service and transportation jobs are those most subject to having involuntary overtime.

The study titled, Time After Time: Mandatory Overtime in the U.S. Economy, was published this month by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C
.
Overtime can cause substandard work and considerable strain on family balancing, and industry estimates place stress- and fatigue-related problems brought on by excessive overtime and other factors at between $150 and $300 billion annually.

"Workers who put in the kind of long hours that go along with overtime often get less sleep, which can lead to an increase in workplace accidents and injuries," the authors say. One of the occupations most affected by mandatory overtime is nursing in hospitals, where chronic understaffing often leads nurses to work additional hours in less than ideal physical and emotional condition. In fact, a national survey of nurses shows that 56 percent believe the time they have for each patient has decreased, and 75 percent feel that the quality of patient care has decreased in the last two years
.
"High patient load and fatigue from long hours can result in inadequate compliance with procedures and less monitoring of patients. As a result, overtime can compromise quality in patient care," the authors say. Nurses aren't alone, however, among hospital workers who feel that working long hours has adversely affected their performance. Medical residents cited fatigue as a cause for their serious mistakes in 4 out of 10 cases.

This has led many states to adopt or propose legal limits on mandatory overtime for nurses and others. Key proposals from the report for state and federal legislation include:

- *Capping the number of overtime hours that can be required in a given week.

- Giving employees the right to refuse mandatory overtime, except in emergencies.

- Reforming the Fair Labor Standard Act's overtime provisions to cover more, currently "exempt" employees.

- Sanctioning employers who penalize or otherwise discriminate against employees who refuse to work more than the maximum number of hours per day or week; and

- Inducing employers who face continuous labor shortages to hire and train additional employees, rather than require current employees to put in more hours.

In addition to improving the workers' ability to perform their job functions, these measures would help workers spend more quality time at home, and enhance their morale both at home and in the workplace, the authors say.