Nurses defeat proposal that would have effected overtime pay for nurses

Nevada RNformation, Aug 2003 by Bunch, cynthia

On Thursday, June 5, the House Republican leadership withdrew H.R. 1119 Called the "The Family Time Flexibility Act" from the floor agenda because they lacked the votes to pass the bill. This bill would have allowed employers to replace overtime pay (time-and-a-- half pay) with compensatory time( time off ), permitting private employers to work nurses more than 40 hours per week without overtime pay for up to 160 hours a year. The substituted "time off" would have been given when it was convenient for the employer--not the nurse. The bill was withdrawn after intense lobbying efforts from the American Nurses Association, the Nevada Nurses Association, and union and labor organizations. The ANA sent a letter to every Member of Congress and also urged its members to contact their Representatives to urge them to vote against H.R. 1119. ANA and NNA thank those of you who called, e-mailed, or wrote to your congressional representative for helping to defeat this bill. Below is the position statement of the American Nurses Association on this issue.

Compensation for Overtime H.R. 1119/S 317, the "Family Time Flexibility Act"

The American Nurses Association opposes H.R. 1119/S 317, which would amend overtime protections in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to allow employers to substitute compensatory time off for time-and-a-half overtime pay. This substitution has serious implications for the nursing workforce and has the potential to be abused by employers of nurses.

* H.R. 1119 in the House and S. 317 in the Senate would allow employers to offer workers time off in place of the current time-and-a-half overtime pay. Both H. R. 1119 and S. 317 would allow employers to save money by requiring more mandatory overtime, which would encourage them to schedule even more overtime that would keep nurses away from their families for longer hours.

* For the thousands of nurses who count on cash overtime to make ends meet for food, housing and health care, H.R. 1119 / S. 317 could take away those extra dollars.

Both H.R. 1119 and S. 317 give an employer ultimate control over when-or if a worker is allowed to use earned comp time.

* Nurses want more time with their families and more control over that time. H.R. 1119 and S. 317 would make it harder for them to have either. It would increase overtime hours by reducing the disincentives carefully placed into law more than 50 years ago.

* Cash overtime is something an employee can use at will. Accrued comp time, on the other hand, loses it value to the employee any time the employer retains discretion to deny leave.

* H.R. 1119 / S. 317 does nothing to address the problem of mandatory overtime. In fact this legislation provides an incentive to require nurses to continue to endure this dangerous practice which places both patients and nurses at risk.

* Nurses currently have a "family time flexibility bill." It's called the Fair Labor Standards Act. The overtime provision was meant to make it more difficult, and therefore less likely, that employers would force workers to take extra time away from their families.

by Cynthia Bunch, RN State Legislative Coordinator, Nevada Nurses Association