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Attack on Overtime: Millions Face Longer Hours, Smaller Paychecks
Labor unions are gearing up to fight the biggest battle yet in the Bush administration's continued attacks on workers, as the White House stealthily plots to yank away the 40-hour workweek from millions of private and public employees by eroding the Fair Labor Standards Act.
New, vague language in the FLSA would mean many workers who have long counted on time-and-a-half to make ends meet will no longer be eligible for overtime pay. But they'd still be forced to work as many hours as the boss demands, for free. People who rarely put in extra hours because their companies don't want to pay for it are likely to find their work days growing.
Several hundred union members and others angry about the pending changes protested June 30 outside the Department of Labor. Unions had planned to hold a forum inside the building and had paid to rent the DOL's public auditorium. But just days before the event, the agency decided unions weren't welcome.
Workers speaking at the rally said they could lose thousands of dollars a year under the Bush scheme. The AFL-CIO says workers, on average, take home $160 a week in overtime pay.
"Of all the shameful and vicious attacks on workers by this self-proclaimed 'family-friendly' administration, this is the worst yet," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
A just-released report by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 8 million workers who earn more than $22,100 could be hurt under the revised FLSA, which the Bush administration wants to put into effect this fall. The pending changes were quietly announced March 31 and the public comment period ended June 30.
The revisions change the criteria that employers use to determine who should be paid overtime and who can legally be exempt.
The report scoffs at the Labor Department's claim that only 640,000 workers would lose overtime protection, saying the DOL "woefully underestimates" the number. CWA attorney Mark Wilson said he suspects the figure is even higher than EPI estimates.
"These language changes are so vague and ambiguous that virtually anyone could lose their right to overtime pay," he said. "The suggestion that just a few hundred thousand jobs will be impacted is patently false."
Congress passed the FLSA in 1938, establishing the 40-hour week and requiring overtime pay for most workers. The DOL claims it's simply updating the rules to make it easier for employers to comply. Wilson said easing burdens on employers has never been the intention of the FLSA, that it is strictly intended to protect workers.
The Labor Department further spins the rule changes by contending that they will help 1.3 million low-income workers who have been exempt from overtime. Wilson said that's a wild exaggeration of the number of low-wage earners who fall through the cracks of overtime protection. Even worse, he said, the DOL is scheming to help employers "comply" with the law without actually paying workers more. (See story below.)
Under the new rules, anyone making over $22,100 a year is at risk of losing overtime, and virtually everyone making more than $65,000 a year will no longer be eligible. The new language would allow employers to classify many if not most jobs as executive, administrative, professional or sales, making them exempt from overtime requirements.
EPI predicts that even bookkeepers and restaurant cooks could be cut off from overtime because their so-called "specialized knowledge" - even if the result of on-the-job training - would put them in the category of professionals. In the past, the professional exemption applied only to workers with high-level education necessary for their field, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers.
Regarding the "sales" criteria, Wilson said it could be twisted to apply even to such workers as telephone customer service representatives who are required to pitch new products and services while helping callers with billing or repair problems.
The list of jobs that are targeted is bottomless, but it would include police, firefighters and paramedics, newspaper reporters, dental hygienists, many construction workers, technicians, truck drivers, nurses and anyone who has served in the military. That's because military training is another criteria that employers can use to label a worker a "professional."
Labor, through a media campaign and lobbying for legislation that would bar the changes, is fighting the overtime battle on behalf of all workers. In fact, most union-represented workers, for now, are the least at risk because their contracts spell out overtime requirements. Some contracts, however, state only that companies will comply with state and federal wage and hour laws.
And union members' overtime could be on the table in future contract negotiations, when employers inevitably argue that they can't compete with non-union companies that don't have to pay overtime. "The FLSA was the floor - the bare minimum at the bargaining table," Wilson said. "Now that floor is about to drop out from under us."
Tell the Department of Labor to leave workers' overtime rights alone. To send an e-mail to the agency, go to www.aflcio.org and click on "overtime."
New, vague language in the FLSA would mean many workers who have long counted on time-and-a-half to make ends meet will no longer be eligible for overtime pay. But they'd still be forced to work as many hours as the boss demands, for free. People who rarely put in extra hours because their companies don't want to pay for it are likely to find their work days growing.
Several hundred union members and others angry about the pending changes protested June 30 outside the Department of Labor. Unions had planned to hold a forum inside the building and had paid to rent the DOL's public auditorium. But just days before the event, the agency decided unions weren't welcome.
Workers speaking at the rally said they could lose thousands of dollars a year under the Bush scheme. The AFL-CIO says workers, on average, take home $160 a week in overtime pay.
"Of all the shameful and vicious attacks on workers by this self-proclaimed 'family-friendly' administration, this is the worst yet," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
A just-released report by the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 8 million workers who earn more than $22,100 could be hurt under the revised FLSA, which the Bush administration wants to put into effect this fall. The pending changes were quietly announced March 31 and the public comment period ended June 30.
The revisions change the criteria that employers use to determine who should be paid overtime and who can legally be exempt.
The report scoffs at the Labor Department's claim that only 640,000 workers would lose overtime protection, saying the DOL "woefully underestimates" the number. CWA attorney Mark Wilson said he suspects the figure is even higher than EPI estimates.
"These language changes are so vague and ambiguous that virtually anyone could lose their right to overtime pay," he said. "The suggestion that just a few hundred thousand jobs will be impacted is patently false."
Congress passed the FLSA in 1938, establishing the 40-hour week and requiring overtime pay for most workers. The DOL claims it's simply updating the rules to make it easier for employers to comply. Wilson said easing burdens on employers has never been the intention of the FLSA, that it is strictly intended to protect workers.
The Labor Department further spins the rule changes by contending that they will help 1.3 million low-income workers who have been exempt from overtime. Wilson said that's a wild exaggeration of the number of low-wage earners who fall through the cracks of overtime protection. Even worse, he said, the DOL is scheming to help employers "comply" with the law without actually paying workers more. (See story below.)
Under the new rules, anyone making over $22,100 a year is at risk of losing overtime, and virtually everyone making more than $65,000 a year will no longer be eligible. The new language would allow employers to classify many if not most jobs as executive, administrative, professional or sales, making them exempt from overtime requirements.
EPI predicts that even bookkeepers and restaurant cooks could be cut off from overtime because their so-called "specialized knowledge" - even if the result of on-the-job training - would put them in the category of professionals. In the past, the professional exemption applied only to workers with high-level education necessary for their field, such as doctors, lawyers and engineers.
Regarding the "sales" criteria, Wilson said it could be twisted to apply even to such workers as telephone customer service representatives who are required to pitch new products and services while helping callers with billing or repair problems.
The list of jobs that are targeted is bottomless, but it would include police, firefighters and paramedics, newspaper reporters, dental hygienists, many construction workers, technicians, truck drivers, nurses and anyone who has served in the military. That's because military training is another criteria that employers can use to label a worker a "professional."
Labor, through a media campaign and lobbying for legislation that would bar the changes, is fighting the overtime battle on behalf of all workers. In fact, most union-represented workers, for now, are the least at risk because their contracts spell out overtime requirements. Some contracts, however, state only that companies will comply with state and federal wage and hour laws.
And union members' overtime could be on the table in future contract negotiations, when employers inevitably argue that they can't compete with non-union companies that don't have to pay overtime. "The FLSA was the floor - the bare minimum at the bargaining table," Wilson said. "Now that floor is about to drop out from under us."
Tell the Department of Labor to leave workers' overtime rights alone. To send an e-mail to the agency, go to www.aflcio.org and click on "overtime."