May 8, 2013Issues: Labor,
Wages and
Benefits
House GOP rejects Dem amendment to ensure workers could use comp
time when they need it
WASHINGTON – House Republicans voted to advance legislation
today that puts hourly workers’ overtime pay at serious risk on a 223 to 204
vote.
The bill, H.R. 1406,
would allow employers to replace workers’ overtime time-and-a-half pay with
nonguaranteed time off in the future. Any unused comp time would be repaid to
the worker at the end of the year without interest, amounting to an
interest-free loan from workers to their boss.
“The representations that the workers are free to choose between
comp time and overtime pay, in fact, are not correct. At the end of the day,
the employer has the right to veto any comp time that this bill will allow to
accrue,” said Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the
Workforce Protections Subcommittee. “That’s why the many organizations
representing working families and representing women have resoundingly come out
in opposition to this legislation.”
More than 160
organizations have come out against the Republican bill, saying
that the bill is just an empty promise and would cause considerable harm to
working families. Watch this video
to see how H.R. 1406 actually works.
Instead of forcing workers to choose between the overtime pay
they need and the paid time off that they desire, Democrats said that all
workers should be able to earn paid family or sick leave without having to give
up critical overtime pay. One proposal, The Healthy Families
Act (H.R. 1286), would allow workers to earn up to seven paid
sick days a year.
“American families are putting in longer hours and less pay, and
this bill will make this worse, said Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) .
“If we really want to talk about flexibility, let’s talk about paid sick
leave.”
In addition, opponents of the Republican bill say that it does
not contain sufficient safeguards to ensure that workers really have the choice
between overtime pay and nonguaranteed comp time off. An employer could
schedule fewer hours or even fire workers who choose to keep their overtime pay
without facing strong penalties.
Republicans rejected an amendment by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter
(D-N.H) to ensure that workers would actually be able to use the comp time
they earned in cases of a family illness or a medical appointment for a
veteran. The Democratic amendment would also prevent companies from making
workers choose between overtime pay and time off if the business has violated
the Equal Pay Act, the 1963 law that makes it illegal to pay women less based
on their gender.
“Undermining workers’ paychecks or making their work schedules
less predictable is no way to support working families,” said Rep. George
Miller (D-Calif.), the senior Democratic member of the Education and the
Workforce Committee. “Instead, Congress should be working to actually help our
nation’s working families by increasing the minimum wage and allowing workers
to earn paid time off, all without taking away their overtime pay.”
