House panel okays time off as overtime payment

Maine Nurse, Aug-Oct 2003

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A House panel on Wednesday passed a bill that, depending on who describes it, would either give busy working parents more time with their families, or begin unraveling the country's bedrock 40-hour work week.

The measure would overhaul the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act by allowing eligible workers to take time off instead of cash when they work more than 40 hours a week.

Backers in the House Education and Workforce Committee said they expect the full Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass the bill within the next month.

A similar bill in the Senate includes a provision that would replace the 40-hour work week with an 80-hour fortnight, that would not allow workers overtime pay until they reached 80 hours over a two-week period.

The House bill, which does not include the 80-hour fortnight provision, would allow employers to give their workers the option of volunteering to take up to 160 overtime hours per year in "comp time" instead of cash, both paid at the time and a half rate.

Opinions of the measure, which the Republican-led panel passed 27-22 on a straight party line vote, are sharply split.

Supporters have packaged it as a family-friendly measure - - the Family Time Flexibility Act - - that would update the country's depression-era workplace law by giving employees the option of converting their overtime into time off, just as the federal government allows its workers to do.

"Most workers simply want additional flexibility in the workplace and more choices than are currently available, and we should not deny them this opportunity," said committee Chairman John Boehner, an Ohio Republican.

But opponents say the measure, which business groups have been pushing for years, would undermine the 40-hour work by reducing the employers' overtime costs, thereby encouraging companies to demand more overtime of workers.

"There is no justification for undermining the 40-hour work week or giving workers a pay cut in the name of 'work schedule flexibility," Bill Samuel, top lobbyist for the 65-union AFL-CIO told Boehner in a letter.

Under the bill, management can deny for up to a year a worker's request for time off if it would "unduly disrupt the operations" of the business. At the end of the year, the accrued comp time must be paid in cash.

Opponents say that by allowing businesses to defer their overtime payments, they get free use of their workers' money for up to a year.

They also say workers may feel forced into accepting time off instead of cash, despite safeguards in the bill, and those who are owed so-called comp time could be left empty-handed if a company closes.