Unpaid overtime is a term that is getting more and more spotlight nowadays. The increasing number of cities and businesses, increasing number of working people intensified the relevance of this issue.
For one I'm always for the spirit of entrepreneurships and often times 8-5 couldn't cover the dynamics of the reality of commerce. Sometimes 12 hours everyday for a week is what it takes, sometimes for a month, sometimes only 3 hours per day would suffice and it's different throughout the year for most of the cases (I bet).
The problem is the law up the stakes on this 8-5 "working hours" idea by giving overtime rules, overtime payments. While idle moments within the 8-5 during idle seasons were not reducable. This causes dissatisfaction among people apart from the stress contributed by the long hours.
My solution for this is not complete but I think is good:
Separate the concept between the problem of extra efforts and extra commitment and property sacrifices.
1. Extra hours means extra toil on the body, that's a health problem, stamina problem,
2. Expected overtime is a contractual problem, property problem, sovereignity problem, that's a different source of stress and rejections, internal conflicts
3. Expected overtime if it was a culture then it's a constant attack towards the law. So number two above is a problem for individuals, while this is a problem of the mass (area of effect damage).
So you see if you're a gamer, this spell has different attack types: Physical, Magical, Unit, AOE, all at the same time.
I want to focus on the AOE damage. The law is hurt by this, it's better for people to not be employee, all entrepreneurs rather than being "protected" by the law while actually are not protected.
This going to reduce people's willingness to participate in the law, in the society, because they provided them with no hope, also reduce the credibility of the law as a whole encouraging business practices that circumvent the law rather than working together with the law.
So what I'm saying is, rather unintuitively, just freeze that rule. Don't apply it, not don't enforce it because it's usually already is and that's the problem, but statutorily freeze the rule until different developments took place in the society.
If the people no longer experience constant disrespect towards the law happening in their lives, then the credibility would start to improve, and then there's going to be a chance to actually implement something that works later.
Next my solution also would be, stop micromanaging the workforce. The government is a centralized institution, it could not possibly know everything in the world. While businesses flow with innovation and blind spots and margins and all kinds of stuffs that are unique in perspective. That's how entrepreneurs were successful, and when it's not then the businesses were not really entrepreneurship but a manifestation of lack of competition.
What about the minimum wage? What about the rights of the blue collars?
The blue collars get their income from companies, companies get their income from customers, could companies said to the customers "You must shop in my shop minimum once a week?" or "When you stopped shopping and we must close you must pay us parting compensations?". Wait, wait, I do believe that being underpaid is bad, but the solution is not that because "that" is a blanket policy from people who don't know what's happening. The solution must be tied to gross profit, and it applies not only to workers or people but also to companies: "Don't sell below gross". Plus usually we went after the seller not the buyer, but meh, context.
Now back to the systemic wound, we just can't have the law keep on being violated like this and think it's fine. The manifestation is to the people, to the workers, to the way businesses are being conducted, to the credibility of the law, and the relationships between people. I'm talking about discrimination, hatred, abuse, racism, etc. How? The law is a collection of solutions out of problems of the past, thousands of years of evolution. When the name of the law was tainted, the inclination of the people are going to start to reinvent the wheel, but instead of getting to the right solution which is to create a rule that is written, formulated, articulated, they were going to had to do something else... because that's the law and they've lost hope with the law.
So the problem is not with the spoken word itself but in the lack of care of it, and it has been going on for a looooooong time. But people mistake it with the fault of the law, no... it's the lack of participation and care for the law, you.... you... you are also part of the problem. And me too
