U.S. House Republicans pass bill to gut overtime pay
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brushing
aside opposition from unions, women’s
groups, and civil rights groups, the Re-
publican-controlled U.S. House of
Representatives passed a bill May 8
that would allow private-sector em-
ployers to avoid paying overtime wages
to employees working more than 40
hours per week if they offer their em-
ployees “comp” time off instead.
H.R. 1406, dubbed the “Working
Families Flexibility Act,” passed on a
mostly party-line vote of 223-204, with
three Democrats voting for, and eight
Republicans voting against.
Congressional Republicans from
the Pacific Northwest all supported the
bill. Greg Walden of Oregon and Jamie
Herrera Beutler of Washington were
co-sponsors.
The measure has virtually no
chance of passing the Democratic-con-
trolled U.S. Senate, and the White
House has already warned of a veto by
President Barack Obama should the
bill reach his desk.
The bill is part of an effort by House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.),
a Tea Party darling, to “re-brand” the
Republican Party as more “family
Union letter carriers, electricians
will march in Starlight Parade
This year’s Portland Rose Festival
Starlight Parade will have entries from
two local unions.
International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers (IBEW) Local 48 will
mark its 100th anniversary with an en-
try consisting of a union-logoed Chevy
Volt electric car, a centennial banner,
and 40 marchers wearing custom safety
vests, hard hats, and battery powered
light strings.
National Association of Letter Car-
riers (NALC) Branch 82 will also take
part; the local has had an entry in the
Starlight Parade every year since 1988.
This year, members will march wear-
ing their letter carrier uniforms, plus
costumes resembling the U.S. Postal
Service’s “forever stamps.” Those in-
PAGE 8
clude Elvis Presley, a bride and groom,
Abraham Lincoln, Carmen Miranda,
and Buzz Lightyear from the movie
Toy Story.
For the unions, as with other partic-
ipants, it’s a chance to get exposure and
generate good will. Officially known as
Portland General Electric/SOLVE
Starlight Parade, the event draws more
than 250,000 spectators to downtown
Portland, and is broadcast live from 9
to 11 p.m. on FOX 12 TV.
The parade will take place in down-
town Portland Saturday, June 1, start-
ing at 8:30 p.m. It’s preceded by the
Starlight Run, a 5k fun run.
To see the parade route, go online to:
http://www.rosefestival.org/events/
starlightparade/SP-Route-Map.pdf.
friendly,” after the GOP lost the
women’s vote in the 2012 election.
The family friendly labeling didn’t
fool 160 organizations, led by the Na-
tional Employment Law Project, that
signed a mass letter against H.R.1406.
It also didn’t fool the AFL-CIO and
several unions that individually wrote
letters opposing the bill.
“We are tired of being presented
with false choices by Republicans and
business,” Jeff Johnson, president of
the Washington State Labor Council
told The Stand, a web newsletter.
“What is the choice between hard-
earned overtime pay and comp time at
the discretion of the employer? This is
really a Bosses’ Flexibility Act.”
The Stand noted that the rebranding
effort is not about changing the party’s
priorities and values, “it’s just about
changing their talking points.” An
identical version of H.R. 1406 was in-
troduced in 2003 (it died in commit-
tee), and replacing overtime pay with
comp time has been a goal shared by
Republicans and corporate lobbying
groups like the U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce for decades.
“If Republicans are truly interested
in family-friendly work policies and
not just rebranding themselves as
something they are not, then let’s see
their support for paid family leave, uni-
versal paid safe and sick leave, and
universal paid vacation leave for all
workers,” Johnson said. “If they did
these things then the rebranding exer-
cise would be interesting.”
In a letter to members of the U.S
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
House, Charles Loveless, legislative
director of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employ-
ees (AFSCME), wrote that federal law
for state and local workers has the
same provisions allowing flexibility —
at employer discretion— as H.R.1406.
But, he added, employers routinely
abuse the flexibility rule. “In theory,
employees may take compensatory
time within a reasonable period after
making the request,” he wrote. “In
practice, employees are denied the
time when they really need it and the
language of the law becomes a false
premise.”
Under H.R. 1406, employers would
have flexibility to decide whether to al-
low employees to trade overtime hours
for time off, and employers would have
final say in providing time off to work-
ers who have eschewed their overtime
hours. The bill text states that time off
would be permitted to an employee
who has accrued time and put in a writ-
ten request if the employer determines
that “the use of the compensatory time
does not unduly disrupt the operations
of the employer.”
MapLight, a nonpartisan research
organization, followed the money,
tracking campaign contributions to
members of the U.S. House between
Jan. 1, 2011 and Dec. 31, 2012, from
interest groups that had taken a public
position on H.R. 1406.
MapLight found that House mem-
bers voting for the bill received, on av-
erage, $40,495 from groups supporting
the bill (U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
National Retail Federation, etc.) —
115 percent more than House mem-
bers who voted against it.
Speaker John Boehner, who con-
trols the House’s legislative agenda, re-
ceived more money from supporting
groups than any other member of the
House — $409,098.
In the joint letter to Congress initi-
ated by the National Employment Law
Project, opponents of the bill wrote:
“H.R.1406 provides no guarantee
that workers can use their earned time
when a child falls ill, to attend a par-
ent-teacher conference, or to help an
aging parent settle in to a nursing
home. Employers can veto an em-
ployee’s request to use comp time even
in cases of urgent need.”
Signers included the AFL-CIO; the
Coalition of Labor Union Women;
American Federation of Government
Employees; the National Consumers
League; Steelworkers; AFSCME; the
American Federation of Teachers; the
Labor Council for Latin American Ad-
vancement; Working America; and the
Service Employees.
MAY 17, 2013