Latest news with #overtime
BBC News
6 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Powys council worker paid £28k in overtime over 15 months
Concerns have been raised about a council's staffing levels after it was revealed an employee was paid more than £28,000 in overtime during a period of 15 audit for Powys County Council found it spent £2.84m on overtime in that time, of which £2.4m was spent in the 2023/24 financial year – about 1% of the council's wage council "did not operate under a single overtime policy" meaning the rules were "fragmented and inconsistently applied across the board", said Kevin Price, principal auditor for South West Audit Partnership (SWAP).Council head of workforce Paul Bradshaw said he was "reassured" of the 1% figure, adding other councils would report similar overtime payments. The report revealed five employees received more than £20,000 in overtime payments, 39 received between £10,000 and £20,000 and 92 between £5,000 and £10, Price told a council committee the audit found the overtime process was "often informal and lacked proper documentation".He added the fact that a large number of employees received "substantial" overtime payments suggested "possible staffing pressures and raised concerns on the impact of long working hours on employee wellbeing".Pete Lewington, a Conservative councillor, said he was "pleased to see the council's fraud team will be reviewing this as it doesn't seem quite right to me"."As well as getting the controls framework correct and operational around this, what is the plan to reduce this unacceptably high level of overtime?" he Brautigam, committee vice chairman, questioned whether the report highlighted a skill shortage in the council workforce."In my experience it causes those that have the skills to work extraordinarily long hours," he Bradshaw, the council's head of workforce and organisational development, said flexibility to allow overtime had to be built into organisation structures to deal with work added other councils would report similar amounts of overtime payments."I would expect to see one per cent overtime possibly more, so I was reassured," he added that a new computer dashboard was being installed that would allow senior staff to see overtime information and "drill down" into why it was needed.
News.com.au
6 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Labor to introduce new Bill to protect penalty, overtime rates for 2.6 million award workers
Labor will move to protect penalty and overtime rates for about 2.6 million workers, saying 'hardworking' Aussies rely on the entitlements to 'keep their heads above water'. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth will introduce the Bill on Thursday, and urged the Greens and Coalition to support the proposed legislation. The law would prohibit the Fair Work Commission to reduce an overtime or penalty rate, or substitute the entitlements if it reduces the overall take-home pay a worker would otherwise receive. An award would not be able to be altered if there was evidence that even a single worker would be worse off under an arrangement which traded an overtime or penalty entitlement. Ms Rishworth said the change would protect about 2.6 million award-reliant workers. 'If you rely on the modern award safety net and work weekends, public holidays, early mornings or late nights, you deserve to have your wages protected,' she said. 'Millions of hardworking Australians rely on penalty rates and overtime rates to keep their heads above water, which is why this Bill is so critical and should receive the support of both the Opposition and the Greens.' The election promise was prompted by a FWC review launched the Australian Retailers Association to allow senior management to take a 25 per cent wage increase above minimum award entitlements in exchange for overtime, weekend and public holiday penalty rates and rest breaks. The move has been backed by the supermarket giants, plus beauty giant Mecca, as well as Kmart, Costco and 7-Eleven. Prior to the election, then employment minister Murray Watt wrote to the FWC to stop large retailers from cutting the entitlements, in a rare act of government intervention. Enshrining penalty rates was a key demand from the Australian Council of Trade Unions, with secretary Sally McManus previously arguing workers should be compensated for sacrificing their weekends. However, the legislation will likely will likely be opposed by the Coalition, with industrial relations and employment spokesman Tim Wilson stating the independent FWC was already responsible for ensuring 'workers get the best arrangements possible for a fair days work'. Instead he lashed Labor's proposed Bill as being politically motivated. 'There is no threat to penalty rates,' he said on Saturday. 'What there is, is a political focus of the Government that isn't focused towards improving the economic conditions to help small businesses grow, to enable them to go on and employ the next generation of workers, to give those first generation, those first jobs to young Australians so that they can be independent and be able to get on with their economic futures.'
Malay Mail
22-07-2025
- Malay Mail
Human Resources Ministry opens two probes into Johor bus company following driver strike over salary cuts and excessive overtime
PUTRAJAYA, July 22 — The Ministry of Human Resources (KESUMA) has opened two investigation papers against a transport company following a bus driver strike at the Sultan Iskandar Building (BSI) in Johor Bahru on Sunday. In a statement today, the ministry said that initial findings by the Department of Labour Peninsular Malaysia (JTKSM) have found that the strike is linked to unresolved worker grievances, including unexplained salary deductions, the abrupt removal of special duty allowances, as well as unpaid overtime claims. 'Many drivers were reluctant to lodge formal complaints due to fear of retaliation. To avoid a repeat of the incident, JTKSM conducted early-morning checks at the premises today and found no further disruptions,' the ministry said. KESUMA also revealed that the company had previously violated the Employment (Overtime) Regulations 1980 by recording over 104 hours of overtime in a single month during operations conducted on July 17. The same operation saw KESUMA inspect 32 companies, resulting in 34 investigation papers, with 30 under the Employment Act 1955 and four under the Employees' Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodation and Amenities Act 1990 (Act 446). The ministry reminded employers to comply with all provisions of the Employment Act, particularly those related to lawful salary deductions. Violations can result in fines of up to RM50,000 per offence. It noted that Human Resources Minister Steven Sim has instructed strict enforcement without compromise against companies failing to comply with labour laws. Workers facing issues such as wage deductions, unpaid overtime or mistreatment are encouraged to file complaints with JTKSM via the hotline at 03-8886 5192/5937 or email [email protected]. — Bernama
Forbes
13-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
More On The Tips And Overtime Deductions In One Big Beautiful Bill
Earlier this week I noted a subtle difference in the limitations on the tips and overtime deductions included in the Big Beautiful Bill which can create either a marriage penalty or a marriage bonus. I was so taken by the apparent anomaly that I devoted a whole post to it. Now I am getting back to a fuller discussion. When President Trump first came out with "no tax on tips", I studied the proposals that were floating in Congress and had some concerns. Most notable was the harmful effect one of the proposals would have on Earned Income Tax Credit recipients. And then there was all sorts of commentary on how the provision might be gamed. What ultimately emerged addressed many of the issues. What we have in the final language about tips and overtime illustrates Reilly's Third Law of Tax Planning - "Any clever idea that pops into your head probably has (or will have) a corresponding rule that makes it not work". If you had an idea about how to game the "No tax on tips" of "No tax on overtime", let's see if Congress has already knocked it out even before any regulations have been issued. Deductions Subject To Limitations And Phase Outs First of all, the benefits are only about income tax, not Social Security and Medicare as the "no tax" monikers might imply. Further, the final bill puts limits and phaseouts in place. And the benefits are structured as deductions. It you want to know more about what that means, read the next paragraph, but feel free to skip it. It is worth looking at Form 1040 to understand where the deduction fits in. If you clicked on the link, you will see that your total income is on Line 9. Then on LIne 10, there are adjustments to income. There are a lot of those so they are totaled up on Part II of Schedule 1. Subtracting Line from Line 11 gives you your adjusted gross income (AGI). This is an important number because many thresholds and limitations are keyed to AGI including those of the tips and overtime deductions. Next on line 12 you get either your standard deduction or the total of certain itemized deductions from Schedule A. The tips and overtime will not be among them, so you don't need to be an itemizer. On Line 13 you will see the qualified business income deduction which will be added to the amount on line 12 to arrive at line 14 which is subtracted from AGI to arrive at taxable income. That's where the tips and overtime deductions will go along with the automobile interest deduction included in the bill. I don't know if they will add more lines to the form or give us another schedule. If it is another schedule I hope that they call it Schedule A PLUS. Do you remember all the talk about a postcard tax return in 2017? Still not happening. UNITED STATES - NOVEMBER 14: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., holds up a postcard tax return ... More form during the press conference following the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017. Ryan is flanked from left by House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Republican Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)Both the tip deduction and the overtime deduction require that married taxpayers file joint returns to claim the deduction. There are dollar limitations. The limitation is $25,000 for the tip deduction and $12,500 for the overtime deduction on a single return and $25,000 for the overtime deduction on a joint return. The phaseout is the same - $100 for every $1,000 that modified adjusted gross income exceeds $150,000 on a single return or $300,000 on a joint return. The modification to adjusted gross income is an add back of income excluded because it was earned while living abroad or in Puerto Rico on one of the U.S. possessions. I have to wonder if the $150,000 threshold is an echo of the proposal to totally eliminate income taxes on those earning less than $150,000. Qualified Tips Unlike earlier proposals, "qualified tips" are not just tips received by employees. The deduction also applies to tips received in the course of a trade or business. The thing that comes to mind there is food delivery people or Uber drivers who are considered independent contractors. I also recall that adult entertainers can be independent contractors. The deduction will be allowed only to the extent that the gross income from the business exceeds the allocable deductions. This could present some planning issue for how capital assets might be written off. The tip deduction will reduce the amount of income counted as qualified business income for that deduction. What exactly are the "tips" that are the subject of the deduction? First of all, they have to be received by an individual in an occupation which "customarily and regularly received tips on or before December 31, 2024". There is a call for a list to be created. Next the amount involved has to be paid voluntarily, without consequence in the event of nonpayment, not the subject of negotiation and determined by the payor. So that amount that large parties have to pay in a restaurant seems to not qualify. There are excluded fields of business- health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of 1 or more of its employees. I have to wonder if the "performing arts" exclusion knocks out the adult entertainers. There is some litigation in the sales tax area that might help them. Overtime For the definition of "qualified overtime compensation" you really need to look at the bill's language and meditate for a while. Here it is "... the term 'qualified overtime compensation' means overtime compensation paid to an individual required under section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that is in excess of the regular rate (as used in such section) at which such individual is employed". That language triggered some back and forth in the twitterverse, about whether they mean the total amount paid for overtime or just the premium. If you search for what the median hourly wage for Americans is, there are a variety of answers but they seem to be between $20 and $30 per hour, so let's use $25 for illustrative purposes. With that as the base hourly wage you get $1,000 per week for 40 hours, $52,000 per year. At time and half for overtime the $37.50 premium rate would max out the $12,500 limit at 6.5 hours a week. That is how I think of overtime and how I initially read, probably misread, the statute. The consensus seems to be that the deduction is only for the premium. Tom Gorczynski EA pointed out something from the White House website that supports that interpretation. I found that quite persuasive. Kelly Erb also writes that it is just the premium, which seals the deal for me. It still bugs me though. So if it is just the premium it takes 1,000 hours to max out the benefit if you are single in my example. Call it a 60 hours work week. If you are married and your spouse does not work overtime it would be 2,000 hours. At $50 per hour you will hit the maximum at 500 hours of overtime if you are single or 1,000 hours if you are married with a spouse that does not get overtime. Absent a lot else going on, you won't be having to deal with the phaseout. I won't comment on the equity or sense behind this particular deduction other than to remark that back when I used to work more than forty hours a week mostly without overtime pay, I found it a lot harder when I was doing that by working two jobs rather than longish hours on one job. So I am puzzled as to what makes an overtime premium worthy of special tax treatment. Gaming The Overtime Deduction I don't know much about the Fair Labor Standards Act, which is the key to the deduction. It is clear however that whether people are exempt employees not subject to the overtime premium requirement can be debatable. Employers will generally prefer to not have that requirement. I don't think this deduction will change that, but I can't resist coming up with a way to game it. Here is the idea. I have a bunch of salaried employees and I want to help them out. So what I do is cut everybody's pay to below $684 per week so that I have to pay them time and a half over forty hours. Then I guarantee them overtime hours which will include overtime hours when they are "on-call". That will bring them up to whatever their previous salary was. And a third of that amount will be deductible. This is actually a terrible idea when it comes to actually executing it, but I felt I had to come up with something if I could. I haven't thought of a way to game the tips deduction, but I am sure they will be coming.
National Post
10-07-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Evander Kane one-on-one: On his last days an Oiler, race in hockey and why he chose the Canucks
Article content Then Brad Marchand scored the overtime winner in Game 2, and the series changed. Kane's dad, Perry, and Marchand's dad, Kevin, played together on the junior Dartmouth Arrows team in Nova Scotia, but Kane said he only found out about it when asked about it during the Cup final. There was no deep relationship between the families. Article content 'The next game, it could have went either way as well,' said Kane. 'You know, we jump out to a bit of a lead and it's just one of those things that, if you get up two to nothing, maybe the series changes a little bit. I think really where the series turned was Game 5; we didn't play the type of Game 5 we needed to play. Coming back, tied 2-2, we could have ensured at least we have a Game 7 on home ice. I didn't think we had our best game, but in a big way. And then, Game 6 it just seemed that when they got opportunities, they scored. And then their goalie made a big save. Article content 'I think the whole series, both Cup finals, you know, their goaltender (Sergei Bobrovsky) stole some games for them. He was elite, and you look at their team, they've got big, mobile defencemen, great goaltending and they've got a deep forward lineup with some top-end talent. You could have said the same thing about our team was as well, or be very close to that. That's why we were in the Cup final back-to-back years. So the margins in both series were so small. And I think the second time both teams were better. It was tough to lose, but we were right there.' Article content Kane is thrilled his family will be able to attend all of his home games. His dad is still active in hockey, and runs Spot On Hockey, which works to give instruction and encouragement to players of colour. He's brought that program to Edmonton, as well. Article content 'He donates ice and instructors and gives kids, basically, a free opportunity to learn the game of hockey and work on their skills and get better,' said Kane. 'And there's nobody more passionate about minorities and getting them involved in a game that he loves.' Article content And will his dad see a lot of home wins? Kane believes this Canucks team is close to getting back to where it was two seasons ago, when it won the Pacific Division and was ousted in the second round of the playoffs by the Oilers after a wild, physical seven-game series. Article content 'We played Vancouver in the second round in the first year we went to the Cup final,' said Kane. 'And we had to take them to Game 7, and we squeaked it out. Vancouver, only two years ago, they could have been in the final. They were probably the toughest series, believe it or not, that whole playoff, including Florida. I mean, we got down three in Florida, but then we won three straight, right? Yeah. Canucks were probably our toughest series over that whole year. If you look back at that, obviously they had a bit of an off year last year, I think that it's more than realistic to be back in the playoffs and be contending. Article content
