Re: wage protection and overtime - two subjects in this posting. I don't know about the LAS, but my outfit has a neat little trick which brings the two together. "With the one hand she giveth, and with the other taketh away." When our A4C conditions were published, we protectees were warned that we would have to repay protected amounts via overtime earnings. Our masters felt that this was only right and fair; the wage slaves weren't asked. Thus, Line 4 of the "Pay and Allowances" side of my current pay chit reads "PROTECTION PAYMENT £19.59", whilst Line 7 reads "PROT. OF PAY ALLOWANCE -£19.59". (A negative allowance - there's a convoluted concept!). My hourly rate is £10.0902, so at time-and-a-half, this deduction represents only 1hr 18mins of work; I'm therefore not unduly fussed by the sums involved. What boggles me slightly (and depresses me a lot), though, is the notion that people must exist who believe that a miserly, petty-minded, little bit of financial bottom feeding such as this is a worthy use human ingenuity. Ebenezer Scrooge is alive, thriving, and working for the NHS! On the other hand, if future alterations to A4C result in the assignment of large protected sums to significant numbers of staff, then this mean little scam could represent an insidious, serious, and downright nasty, threat to a lot of wage packets. Keep smiling!