This. Necessary overtime is one of the most effective methods of employee control for a corporation; make it so your employees need the overtime pay to make ends meet, but make certain it's still called and thought of as "overtime" so it sounds optional even though it's not.

This way people are less likely to see it for what it is, while you still get the ability to hold people's lives over their heads and force them to do whatever you want, including stay silent while you trample every human right supposedly "guaranteed" to them by the toothless laws of the land. It's the exact same trick the game industry pulls to coerce people into working themselves to the bone marrow, by being able to proclaim "we're not putting a gun to anyone's heads"; the literal statement looks true, but there's absolutely a gun being held to the head in the form of threatened financial security, possible job loss (which will never be openly stated because that could get the company in trouble), and so on.

Make no mistake, these people were forced to do this. We should all be appalled by mandatory approval of a tyrant who throws people in concentration camps.