General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHouse Republicans have introduced a bill that would end the 40-hour work week
House Republicans have introduced a bill that would end the 40-hour work week, dismantling an important component of the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 and hurting middle-class families across the country.
Sponsored by Rep. Martha Roby (AL), the dubiously-titled Working Families Flexibility Act (H.R. 1406) would remove the requirement that employers pay a cash premium for overtime work and instead allow them to offer employees compensatory time off. The effect would be an FLSA that is undermined of its only incentive against excessive hours and a cheaper way for employers to demand mandatory overtime.
Eileen Appelbaum, a senior economist with the Center for Economic Policy and Research, says the bills major effect would be to hurt workers, likely increasing overtime hours for those who dont want them and cutting pay for those who do.
IAM International President Tom Buffenbarger wrote a letter to Congress encouraging them to vote against the bill.
Employers can already work within the existing laws to allow workers adjusting work schedules around family needs without changing the 40-hour workweek, Buffenbarger wrote. Comp time proposals let the employer decide whether workers can use any accrued compensatory time. Additionally, nothing would prevent the employer from forcing workers to take time off individually or limiting whether workers can use the compensatory time at all if it is too burdensome to the work-load.
The bill was referred to committee and could come to a vote in the House as early as next week.
http://www.goiam.org/index.php/imail/latest/11342-proposed-bill-would-end-40-hour-work-week
Who knows next month they could vote to repeal the 13th amendment for even cheaper workers.
dballance
(5,756 posts)Will they have to pay an employee for the comp time they accrued if they terminate them? The article is not very detailed and no link to text of the bill.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)and we couldn't use it when we wanted to.
Its a ponzi scheme.
LuvNewcastle
(16,844 posts)Journeyman
(15,031 posts)If you're so busy as to require overtime, when will you be slow enough to take the accrued time?
justabob
(3,069 posts)I also had a comp time situation at an old job.... I had accrued over two weeks of comp time that I never got to use. Comp time sounds like a not so bad idea, in theory. In practice though it really, really sucks.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)lost a months pay as well.
underpants
(182,792 posts)hollysmom
(5,946 posts)If you are not smart enough to be a grifter like them, you are not smart enough =- morals are for suckers, so think these good Christians.
tclambert
(11,085 posts)Republicans think of people as either takers or makers. Somehow they also think makers are the idle rich ("job creators" don'tcha know), while people who work for a living actually making things are takers, along with poor people, whom they assume have no jobs, ignoring the huge category known as the working poor. All these people cost business owners money. And we know from Wal-Mart economics that
businesses should try to reduce those employment costs to the point where the government must subsidize your workers with food stamps. Or re-institute slavery.
They overlook the gaping hole in this economic vision: who will buy your stuff if none of your customers makes a decent living wage anymore?
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)I mean the takers at the top are Grifters. Every time I hear about someone who fell for the Nigerian prince scheme, I think of all the people who have fallen for the republican meme, One plays on greed and the other on keeping your self from being on the bottom level but keeping others down, not by raising yourself.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts).
LooseWilly
(4,477 posts)I just wish I weren't so uncertain about the prospect.
The notion of "improving" the economy by cutting pay for workers was really the secret to the GM bailout... hopefully he won't decide to run with the idea.
emulatorloo
(44,120 posts)LooseWilly
(4,477 posts)I decided to go ahead and look for some specifics for you.
The auto bailout proposal from the Big 3 auto companies totaled $34 billion in government loans. In return, the companies promised to fast-track development of energy-efficient vehicles, and consolidate operations. GM and Ford agreed to streamline the number of brands they produced. They also won agreements from the UAW union to delay contributions to a health trust fund for retirees and reduce payments to laid-off workers. The three CEO's agreed to work for $1 a year and sell their corporate jets.
http://useconomy.about.com/od/criticalssues/a/auto_bailout.htm
So there we have cuts to the funding for retirees and the unemployed in order to "help" GM, and the other Big 2.
Meanwhile, a few minutes of perusing the internets digs up the fact that the trust fund for retirees that was being cut as part of the bailout was supposed to be provided in order to ameliorate wages cuts that the UAW agreed to in 2007 contract negotiations.
The 2005 Harbour Report estimated that Toyota's lead in benefits cost advantage amounted to $350 US to $500 US per vehicle over North American manufacturers. The United Auto Workers agreed to a two-tier wage in recent 2007 negotiations, something which the Canadian Auto Workers has so far refused.{65} Jared Bernstein, the chief economist of Vice President Joe Biden, noted in an interview with WWJ-AM in Detroit that most of the 2007 contract concessions apply only to new hires, while older workers "still benefit from contracts that were signed a long time ago."{66} However, only 30% of parts used by the Big Three employ union labor, with 70% sourced from non-union labor.
Delphi, which was spun off from GM in 1999, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the UAW refused to cut their wages and GM is expected to be liable for a $7 billion shortfall.{67}{68}{69}
In order to improve profits, the Detroit automakers made agreements with unions to reduce wages while making pension and health care commitments. GM, for instance, at one time picked up the entire cost of funding health insurance premiums of its employees, their survivors and GM retirees, as the U.S. did not have a universal health care system.{70} With most of these plans chronically underfunded in the late 1990s, the companies have tried to provide retirement packages to older workers, and made agreements with the UAW to transfer pension obligations to an independent trust.{71} Nonetheless, non-unionized Japanese automakers, with their younger American workforces (and far fewer American retirees) will continue to enjoy a cost advantage.{72}{73}{74}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_industry_crisis_of_2008-2009
So, to recap: in 2007 "In order to improve profits, the Detroit automakers made agreements with unions to reduce wages while making pension and health care commitments." Then, in 2009 "They also won agreements from the UAW union to delay contributions to a health trust fund for retirees and reduce payments to laid-off workers." ... which thereby rolled back the "concession" by the companies to their workers.
How is this not empowering the profitability of the auto makers by ennabling them to reduce pay (and benefits) to workers? And, when workers decided not to take the company up on the offer of a pay cut, the company decided to take a $7 billion loss rather than continue operations.
And, now... GM is profitable and a model for "economic success"? Are we really to believe that the elimination of Saturn is what changed the "profitability" of the company?
Feel free to use a third letter in your response.
Progressive dog
(6,900 posts)socialist_n_TN
(11,481 posts)over and over again. Just because he's not as neo-liberal as the other guys doesn't change that fact. So, we'll see where this goes. And remember he doesn't have to endorse the entire plan to move the talk. All he has to do is endorse the IDEA of "comp time" instead of overtime and nit-pick over the details of the comp time proposal.
I'm actually not saying he WILL do this, but it is something he has done in the past with other economic proposals.
deutsey
(20,166 posts)KansDem
(28,498 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)bowens43
(16,064 posts)Cosmocat
(14,564 posts)and it gets worse every day with this jackasses.
They just keep finding ways to advance their bullshit.
It keeps coming at the national level and we find a way to stem off most of it, but it comes just as much at the state level and they are pretty darn good at getting it punched through there.
sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)They're assholes, a numerous type of human subspecies that survives by preying on its own kind.
gtar100
(4,192 posts)to get people back to work. Once this terrible restriction of 40 hour work weeks is lifted, they can get rid of minimum wage and reinstate laws on maximum wages - for workers, not business owners. Just like the good old days. Profits will soar!
From there they can get rid of that ridiculous law that forces kids to get an education instead of work. Locks and chains have become so sophisticated these days that it'll be even easier to chain the more unruly and uncooperative children to machines and desks without hurting them...too much. Glad somebody has their priorities straight. All these children out playing every day is just productivity thrown out the window. Free time is for the rich. If you don't have it, you don't deserve it.
It would also be really helpful to struggling businesses in today's economy if the people who cannot pay off their debts were thrown into jail. It worked so well before when that was common practice. Bankruptcy is for businesses, not people. All debt risk should be on the shoulders of consumers, not businesses...for goodness sakes.
While they're at it, they should reinstate laws that unjustly keep people from being owned as slaves. Think of it as a way for people to pay back their debts. And the nice thing about living in today's world is that there's no more racism...anyone can be a slave regardless of skin color. That's equality in action. So don't be calling rich people racist - that is so 17th and 18th Century.
All this is what's so awesome about Republicans. It's not that they didn't learn anything from history. They take their queues straight out of the play book. Total disregard for human rights has worked for ages at protecting wealth, status, and power. Why stop now. The New Deal along with the rise of unions were just bumps in the road, a sign that their strategy of putting a middle class between themselves and the discontent of the unwashed masses had gone a little too far. Readjustments are being made.
EOS:
tclambert
(11,085 posts)The privatized prisons often use the prisoners as slave labor. They must be drooling over the prospects of recreating debtors' prisons.
midnight
(26,624 posts)Botany
(70,502 posts)why would anybody ever vote republican
secondvariety
(1,245 posts)and it's usually just a couple of reasons why Joe Lunchbucket votes Republican-guns and a hatred and fear of anyone who they consider different.
Botany
(70,502 posts).... O.T. and it was just one big ass scam. Overtime is where you start to make
decent money and to take that a way should kill any sort of support politically.
Historic NY
(37,449 posts)Comp time doesn't work, even if your in the endless cycle in public service Even now its been looked at come retirement time. Especially when someone presents a claim for untold hours. In recent years now FEd, State & local governments are limiting the amount, requiring it to be used in a timely manner. 20-30 yrs ago it wasn't uncommon to have 100 or 200 hrs one the books now my former job limits it to 40 hrs. Its nice sometimes to take 4 hrs of and 8 hr shift and bank the time...saved some extra taxes. Comp time should be an agreed upon arrangement between management and the employeess not something mandated by congress...hell they have 239 days off this year with pay.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)Don't say that too loud, they might actually do it. lol
KG
(28,751 posts)Cosmocat
(14,564 posts)If they were to punch this through, the best part is, 20 years from now they would use this to blame the evil liberal boogyman for the shiftless, lazy people in this country unwilling to work 40 hour weeks ...
AzDar
(14,023 posts)Relentlessly evil.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)The FLSA is one of the great, liberal achievements of the 20th century. It does not need "modification."
-Laelth
SDjack
(1,448 posts)sulphurdunn
(6,891 posts)the way these creatures debase language with their euphemisms. "Working Family Flexibility Act" my ass. It should be titled the Indentured Family Penury Act.
no_hypocrisy
(46,094 posts)treestar
(82,383 posts)than the Republicans. Disgusting. Look at what could happen if the Republicans get both Congress and the Presidency.
Cal Carpenter
(4,959 posts)it happens all the fucking time anyway. Might as well adjust the law to reflect reality since we don't bother enforcing existing laws as it is.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)Regulation!
Time and one-half money must translate to time and a half TIME or you just got jacked by 33%. BOOM. If we're trading off the money, we must get equivalent time. 1 hour old "overtime" = 1.5 hours off for comp time.
Comp time must be taken in the same month it is earned. Or two week period. Less than quarterly.
Might need a workers union to help enforce it
Companies can solve the excessive OT payment issue by hiring more people.
Flying Squirrel
(3,041 posts)Let's make it 30, raise pay, more vacation etc etc etc
Wounded Bear
(58,649 posts)had a brief discussion with a co-worker the other day about OT pay. He was surprised that they don't have to pay OT for more than 8 hours work a day. It's based on the 40 hour week.
I'm going on a nice shift tonight. I worked 2 eight hour days during the week, now I'm going to work two 12 hour shifts this weekend. Adds up to 40, but no OT pay since they changed that law a few years back.
Now they want to take that much from us.
Fuck 'em.
Initech
(100,068 posts)If this bill gets passed it's open season on workers.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)They're looking more and more like what they want is Brown's and Durham's in The Jungle.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)Think about it. Companies would no longer have to hire enough workers so that no one worked more than 40 hours or so. Now, an employee could work a theoretically unlimited number of hours.