The Labor Standards Law provides for a 40-hour workweek for most industries and mandates premium pay for hours worked over 40 in a week, or 8 in a day.

Many of Mr. Moreno's co-workers like the nontraditional set-up because, in addition to long stretches of time off, they also receive premium pay.

He said one major American company recently came to ask him if they could avoid the union altogether by offering premium pay and benefits.

Employees were credited on timesheets with moving furniture even when they were not; this enabled them to receive premium pay instead of regular wages.

Even the best and most experienced readers will not be able to be consistently accurate enough to justify premium pay.

And the city might have to offer premium pay to lure doctors for inner-city practice at a fixed salary.

Workers with little education were able to develop skills in companies like Electric Boat in Groton that for decades earned them premium pay, Mr. Carpenter explained.

Such market forces as premium pay for risky work, it argued, more effectively encourage safe practices.

"And they will want premium pay to work here at Mercury."

The company proposed eliminating premium pay for work on Sundays and holidays, and the paperworkers union walked out.