Thursday November 30 1995

Norbrook cuts overtime payments

SENATOR Edward Haughey is the Six Counties highest-paid executive. Last year he took home a cool £1.1 million, and his company Norbrook generated profits of £2 million sterling in 1994.

Production and packaging workers in Norbrook are not so fortunate and since 13 November have been on a new payment allowance where they have to clock up 60-hours work before overtime payments will be made.

The ``basic working week'' is now defined as 60 hours and workers are set to lose up £80 a week. A 40-hour week at a flat rate was the norm at Norbrook, and an average wage would be £160 a week. With another 20 hours overtime employees could boost wages to over £300 a week. Now Norbrook workers are set to lose £80 a week because the first 20 hours of overtime will only be paid at the flat rate when workers are on 12-hour shifts.

AP/RN contacted Norbrook, offering to put their position on the cuts, but human resources manager Gordon Parkes was unavailable for comment.