NBP: Seems even some Democrats are starting to push back against President Barack Obama’s attempt to rewrite federal law to allow millions of more workers to qualify for overtime payments.
Last week Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) introduced a bill designed to delay implementation of a new Department of Labor rule promoted by the president, citing concern that imposing the measure all at once will unduly burden business.
The Labor Department on May 18 released the final version of a rule that requires employers to pay overtime to salaried workers who make less than $47,500 per year. more here
As a person who has struggled for more than two decades with the unpaid overtime problem, I would like to say that even I do not support the president’s bill because, frankly, it’s extraneous.
Rather than make a new law, the Department of Labor needs to enforce the Fair Labor Standards Act. This law specifies that certain employees have status that makes them “non-exempt” from this law, and thus eligible for time-and-a-half pay for all hours worked in a given week over forty.
As a secretary, I could not possibly be considered anything other than “non-exempt” from this law. Yet time and time again I found myself wrangling with employers about whether or not I would be paid for working past 5:00. If I couldn’t finish the day’s work by quitting time, I would get the “You need to develop better time management skills” speech, which is bullshit–if you’re working and answering phones for multiple people, and those people are so utterly un-self-sufficient that you have to do everything short of accompanying them into the lavatory and wiping their asses for them, then any concept of “time management” is shot to Hell.
In fact, I’m still having this problem with the court system. Governor Douchey Douche declared war on overtime in 2011; since then, you practically have to get approvals from everyone right up to the Chief Judge to get paid for working late. When I worked in a courtroom, there were nights when I didn’t finish the day’s calendar until 9:00 p.m. But the “rule” is, “We’ll pay you until fifteen minutes after your jurist goes off the record or 5:00, whichever is later.” I keep telling my union, “Tell them to put that on paper so I can tear it up and use it for kitty litter.” It is the union’s position that courtroom staff needs to leave promptly at 5:00. What they don’t understand is, after a couple of weeks of this, the courtroom would become so backed-up and disorganized that it would be impossible to hear cases. (I should note that at the time, I worked in the second-busiest trial court in the United States, and the daily calendars were lethal.) So I would work late into the night without pay, my grudging gift to the people of New York State.
Anybody wonder why I’m in a foul, pissed-off mood 100% of the time these days?
Last week Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) introduced a bill designed to delay implementation of a new Department of Labor rule promoted by the president, citing concern that imposing the measure all at once will unduly burden business.
Simple reelection ploy – he’ll pull it when he gets back in session.