Ever hear of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938? That is the law that requires employers to compensate covered employees with time and an half pay for every hour they work over 40 in a given week. You know, if Hertz pays you $8 an hour they have to give you $12 for each hour you're on the clock beyond the magic 40 mark.
Enter representative Martha Roby, R-AL. She is sponsoring a bill that would give employers and employees the choice of offering and taking the time and a half, or giving, or receiving compensation through taking days off with pay. MSN writer, Sam Hananel says that it is all part of the GOP effort to become more worker friendly. According to the congresswoman, "For some people time is more valuable than the cash accrued in overtime." Hananel also quotes her as saying, "Why should public sector employees be given a benefit and the private sector be left out?"
Hananel writes that the federal government and many state governments began offering the plan in 1985.
Well there are a couple of reasons most democrats and labor unions don't go along with this "friendly" idea. First off, Judith Lichtman, who is identified as a senior advisor to the National Partnership for Women and Families, points out that this benefit wasn't created to give public sector employees more flexibility. It was created to save the government money. You betcha, it saves the employer money, a concept that warms the cockles of every republican heart. Look at it this way, instead of having to kick you that $12 an hour, the good ol' boys at Hertz give you a few hours off, costing them only $8 per hour.
Now which of those two options do you think the bean counters are going to want you to pick? In theory you can choose, but trust me, there is going to be some serious heat put on people to sign up for the time off option. For the most part public sector employees have unions to back them up. Only 6.6% of the private sector work force have that luxury.
Why is that necessary, other than the obvious ones? Hananel's article notes that there is no guarantee in Roby's bill that employees can take this comp time whenever they want. In fact it would be completely up to the discretion of the employer to decide when they grant it. That would be opposed to them having to pay you the overtime on your next check. In other words, just because they owe you the time you can't count on them granting it because your Dad broke his collar bone and needs help around his home for a couple of weeks. Yes, everyone out there who has worked for assholes like Hertz should be able to see this line coming from some Human Resources slime, "We know you have eighty hours accrued, but we're really, really busy this year, so come back to us in January and we'll see if we're able to let you take it then. Just remember we can't guarantee it at that time either. And oh, by the way, thanks for the no interest loan you just gave us."
Actually I'm just kidding. The HR chump won't thank you for the no interest loan. The company will simply take your money and run with it and laugh all the way to the bank.
In Hananel's opinion some travesty like this will never get passed in the Senate. That would be the same august body that just ignored nearly ninety percent of the American public on expanded background checks of drooling loons who want to buy a gun. Excuse me, but right now I trust them to do the right thing about as much as I trust Rick Santorum to say, "You know, in certain cases abortion should be allowed."
This is just another grotesque scam perpetrated by a party that despises working people and loathes those who represent them.
These are the same clowns who drove us into the great depression and brought us to the brink of another one a little over four years ago. Now they want us to trust them with a plan that will allow corporations to screw with a working person's overtime pay.
Yes, it sounds awfully friendly to me, but not to the poor stiff punching the clock.
Sometimes I don't think republicans can go any lower than they all ready have. They never fail to disappoint though.
I suppose in the end, I'm just a naive guy who doesn't understand that dark chicanery never takes a day off.
That is what happens when you elect it.
sic vita est
5-6-13
No comments:
Post a Comment