Report Shows San Francisco Workers' Overtime Hours Increasing

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Despite pledges, promises and mandates by city officials to stem the practice, San Francisco city workers appear to be logging lots of overtime in 2011.

KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:

In fact, several dozen city workers have already exceeded the maximum annual amount of overtime allowed - 624 hours - in just the first half of the fiscal year.

"We project overtime spending in the current fiscal year at about $142 million," Controller Ben Rosenfield said during a presentation to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Finance and Budget committee earlier this week. "That's up from $130 million last year, so it's about $12 million more, or up about 9.6%."

According to the report Rosenfield provided to the committee members, 74 city workers, almost all of them at Muni and the Fire Department, have already exceeded 624 hours of OT. Five of those workers have logged over 900 hours of OT, including a Muni station agent who logged 1,008 hours during the first half of the fiscal year.

Despite the overall pricey picture of his report, Rosenfield suggested there actually was a silver lining for San Francisco's coffers.

"City overtime spending in the current year," he said, "is projected to remain below the peak from several years ago."

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