Now They Want to Take Away the 8-Hour Day and 40-Hour Week

[marmar]

Now They Want to Take Away the 8-Hour Day and 40-Hour Week

Tuesday, 07 May 2013 15:13
By Dave Johnson, Truthout | News Analysis


Republicans are trying to pass an "alternative" to overtime pay. This is really about taking away the eight-hour workday and 40-hour workweek. Will weekends be next? What about an "alternative" to paying workers at all?

House Republicans are pushing a bill that takes away extra pay for overtime, substituting "comp" time instead. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is the law that brought us the eight-hour workday and the 40-hour workweek. This law does not prohibit employers from requiring workers to work over 40 hours. Instead, it gives employers an incentive to instead pay extra or hire more people, and gives employees a premium if they do have to work longer. (Note that this is also the law that brought us a minimum wage and outlawed child labor.)

There is proof that overtime pay works: workers like domestic workers and agricultural workers - jobs not covered by the FLSA - are twice as likely to have to work more than 40 hours in a week. And even with this law, Americans already work more hours than in almost any other industrialized country.

The Bill - No Guarantees

The House will be voting on H.R. 1406, The Working Families Flexibility Act, which lets employers offer "comp time" instead of overtime pay. The problem is that employers will pressure workers to take comp time instead of overtime, which reduces paychecks and gets rid of the incentive to hire more people. Later, the employees will be pressured to not take that comp time, or will have to be "on call," etcetera. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/16238-now-they-want-to-take-away-the-8-hour-day-and-40-hour-week

[AzDar]

1. The GOP War On Workers marches on...

[liberalmike27]

38. The Proposal

As I've heard it, offers 1.5 hours of comp time for each hour of overtime, which is the overtime rate. Most say it's voluntary. I'm sure the devil is in the details though, I have no doubt of that.

I think a lot of people are going to be sold on this. Thing is, you won't get the "time" off you want, you'll get the "time" off your bosses want, for one. For another, you might end up waiting for it for a long time, which means they get to keep your money, until you get your comp time.

Like a lot of things, it all depends on how you do it.

[hfojvt]

45. I am having a sense of deja vu

because I could have sworn they passed this back in 2003.

I remember contacting my representative twice as part of the AFL-CIO's e-action network (a group I quit after the 2004 election). First they backed down, and then they passed it, as I recall.

Or maybe it just passed the House?

But I could have sworn it became law.

[Myrina]

62. Most companies have a policy ....

.... "use it by 12/31 or lose it" ... and an accompanying policy "no vacation during the month of December because we're busy with end-of-year shit. And our execs all need to be on vacation."

Or in other words: "thanks for the 2+ weeks of free labor this year".

[Curmudgeoness]

101. Do you happen to know.....

if you opt for the "comp time" instead of the overtime pay, and you quit or are fired, do they have to pay the comp time? I know that where I work, if you have vacation time due, you lose it. And the accounting firm we use (and all accounting firms that I know about) pay comp time instead of overtime already (one of those holes in the current law), but they do not get the pay for the comp time if they leave for whatever reason.

[AC_Mem]

126. I am a government worker

And we have a similar system in place. If you are working with direct patient care (Vets), it is overtime only, however if it is extra work it can be a choice by the supervisor based on budget. The positives: after a year the comp time has to be paid out (as OT), and you can use the comp time as needed with notice. It was helpful to have when I went through a recent health crisis. The negative: it is not immediate time and one half pay.

While this is the way for the government, I don't think they should have the right to mandate it for our country. WHERE'S THE JOBS BONER????

[xxqqqzme]

61. I call it the WoW factor

War on Women
War on Workers fir starters

[Plucketeer]

100. And yet it's the PEOPLE

that keep voting these fruitcakes into office. DOH!

[safeinOhio]

2. How about making all CEO compensation

earned income too.

[lunatica]

3. erode, erode, erode

Never let up. Never give up. Never stop picking and eroding and dismantling, and regressing, and de-evolving. Never. That's the GOP raison d'etre.

[AgingAmerican]

49. Creeping fascism

They slowly but surely seep into every crack and crevasse. It's the boiled frog syndrome.

[RKP5637]

78. Exactly, and more Americans had best wake up and stop

voting these fools into office, because they talk about thumping the bible, motherhood and apple pie ... and no taxes. So, we end up with these asses in office there for their own selfish reasons, fucking over most citizens and dismantling America. Most days I wonder WTF is wrong with Americans anymore. Exactly as you say, creeping fascism ... in fact, anymore, I think it's in a slow pace running more that creeping.

[davidn3600]

4. Obama already said he'd veto it if it ever got to him

[leftyohiolib]

21. he also said he find comfortable shoes and get on the picket line and when it actually happened

in wisconsin..... didnt he also say he'd revisit nafta?

[cantbeserious]

43. I No Longer Have Much Respect For Mr. Hope And Change

eom

[kardonb]

47. respect

I have the utmost respect for our great President . Having to work with people who have no intention to work with him, just against everything he hopes to achieve . They have the souls of scrooges and misogynists .

[AverageJoe90]

70. Makes his job harder than even FDR had to face, really. n/t

[HiPointDem]

107. oh bullshit.

[AverageJoe90]

108. I wish it was, Hannah. I wish it was.....n/t

[HiPointDem]

109. i'm not 'hannah'. but you are part of a gang of harrassers, smearers and stalkers. and now on

ignore.

[AverageJoe90]

110. Maybe I had you confused for somebody else.....sorry.

But I'm not harassing, OR stalking you, though.

[DeSwiss]

112. I swear! I need my boots. :-/ n/t

[AgingAmerican]

52. Until he 'evolves' on the issue

or gives it away in some 'grand bargain' deal.

[forestpath]

65. When Obama says something that sounds good it usually means the opposite.

[GaYellowDawg]

87. It'd be easy to get it past Obama...

All the Republicans would have to do would be to agree to something else much smaller and use this as a "compromise."

[quakerboy]

111. Not even.

Really, all the Republicans need to do is propose ending overtime and minimum wage completely, and our president will surely be willing to negotiate a compromise between that position and not doing that. Such as the current republican proposition to end overtime and replace it with (maybe) comptime.

And then the Republicans can refuse to go along with the black president and his whole socialist nonsense of comptime, and they can come to an emergency solution whereby overtime is ended, not even (maybe) comptime is awarded, but at least we will get to keep our minimum wage(only slightly reduced, and with a few new exceptions) temporarily.

TaDa, Victory!

[Laelth]

128. Did he? If so, good. I must have missed it. n/t

-Laelth

[reformist2]

5. Give everyone a free weekly check, and then let businesses hire whoever they want at whatever rate.

[avebury]

6. The problem with comp time is that

employees actually need to be allowed to take it. If employers refuse to increase their workforce they may try to get away with telling their workers that there is too much to do to allow them time off. I know people who get comp time. It is one thing to accru it, another to be given time to use it.

[droidamus2]

17. Next step?

The next step would be for the corporations to say you can only accrue so much 'comp' time and then you have to cash it in. Of course, when you cash it in it is at your regular pay rate not the overtime rate. It's like magic 'POOF' overtime goes away.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

19. They will force you to earn it on their schedule AND take it on their schedule.

Work late Friday night? Mandatory.

Take off Monday morning? No way.

My partner already deals with this shit. And he works for "one of the best places to work in Illinois" according to Crain's Chicago.

They force my partner to "down staff" on their schedule. Two hours on Tuesday morning are common. Leaving early is a pain in the ass.

[2Design]

7. Unions are what got us those benefits - they are doing away with unioins while the clueless cheer

them on - people are just so clueless

[Orrex]

16. Exactly right

Every single thing that doesn't suck about work and the workplace is entirely due to the efforts of unions decades ago.

Union members literally fought and died to secure these concessions from employers, and now the same people who reap the benefits of union blood are the first to decry unions and cast them aside.

We get the government that we deserve, and it appears that we get the workplace that we deserve, too.

[gaspee]

50. And the stupid people

Are brainwashed that the unions are so bad! I know, my stepfather is one of them. He's 70 now and the idiot (he really is stupid) thinks unions are evil. And there's nothing to be done with the stupid. He listens to what he's told because he knows he's a moron.

[CrispyQ]

67. A few years back, during a grocer's strike, I asked a young clerk how the negotiations were going.

She shot me a look of disgust & said, "I don't belong to the union. I would never join the union." (I didn't realize it was optional. ?)

I said, "You can thank the union for overtime, health benefits, a safe work environment. Just about everything that makes this job tolerable came from a union. Don't believe the corporate crap you hear on CNN."

I'm sure when I left, she flipped me off & thought, "What an old fart."

[TnDem]

102. Grocer's unions

What you fail to understand is that with most Grocer's unions, (read UFCW), the union has divided the staff by creating ever worsening levels of tiers among employees.

My wife worked at Kroger for 25 years and was a member of UFCW for all of that time....She saw EVERY SINGLE CONTRACT made worse with union concessions until new employees, (like the person that you are speaking of), found it less profitable to join UFCW than to NOT join it.

Every tier was worse than the prior tier until it was finally better to just not join the union and took what the company offered and you would end up $63 a month ahead.

She finally quit the union in the last year she was there....It was political bullshit between the upper management and old hand employees, (who were always on the bargaining committee).

Never dismiss out of hand what you don't understand.

[mac56]

8. Cheap Labor Republicans.

Even my Republican friends admit that is part of their canon.

[navarth]

9. Let's call it what it really is:

SLAVERY.

There's a special circle in hell for these bastards.

[Initech]

64. They should just overturn the 13th amendment and get it over with.

I'm sick to death of the GOP and their anti everything bullshit. And now they have another anti worker, serial criminal, and adulterer asshole joining their ranks.

[demwing]

10. tie CEO pay to minimum wage

A CEO can earn total income and benefits at only 30 times that of the annual wages of the lowest paid employee. If your company has minimum wage employees , the CEO compensation should max out at about 470k. If a CEO wants a million dollar salary, the lowest paid employee would have to make $33k ($16 an hour).

This would take care of nearly all wage issues.

[think]

33. Love this idea! Makes perfect sense too.

Unless you are just a greedy bastard with no regard for the men and women who toil day in and day out to get you that fat check...

[davidthegnome]

34. That really sounds like a good idea.

Last week my sociology class discussed CEO pay as opposed to the pay of the average worker. The Professor handed out a paper that listed a few statistics... CEO to average worker in the USA: 475 to 1. In the second highest paid CEO Country (I think it was Venezuela) it was 50 something to 1. It's ridiculous.

As great as your idea sounds to me, I don't think it will happen - primarily because big corporations and wealthy individuals own our government.

[Matariki]

98. Brilliant.

That better include benefits, company stock, and bonuses though

[demwing]

114. total compensation package /nt

[malaise]

11. They want everything

It was all a lie from day one and now there is no Soviet Union - the emperor is naked, greedy and does not give a flying fugg about the majority of humanity.

[xchrom]

13. du rec. nt

[RandiFan1290]

14. Give it a few years

and our "dems" will be pushing to pass this or expand it.

[area51]

113. +1

Just like adopting GingrichCare, with mandatory purchase of lightly-regulated health insurance, and no public option.

[Botany]

15. No overtime pay ... great idea

Why would anybody ever vote republican?

Take this idea and hang it around the neck of every single republican running for
the House in 2014.

[judesedit]

18. No more overtime, folks. Wonder when they'll take vacations, sick time, fmla, unemployment benefit,

I guess it's taken a few cents from the 1%ers. 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 Vote! 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 2016 Vote! 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 2018 VOTE! Get these bigotted assholes outta there asap!

[CrispyQ]

95. Many states are relaxing child labor laws,

because you know, we're so enlightened now that no one would ever dream of exploiting children to pad their bottom line.

Some states are also offering some prisoners an opportunity to 'work for free in exchange for time off their sentences.' Now that's how you bring manufacturing & jobs back to America - lock up the work force & make them work for free!

[AnneD]

20. let me tell you about comp time.....

I am a Nurse in a hospital. Many times I was stuck working mandatory overtime because we were short handed. Instead of paying over time as I would have preferred, I got comp time. Yet, when I asked to take comp time, they would never give it to me because "we just don't have enough staff".

When I had my fill of this place I left. They paid me for my unused vacation time because this was a state hospital and this was the state law...BUT THEY DID NOT PAY FOR ALL THE COMP TIME I HAD ACCUMULATED. This was theft of wages pure and simple.

Next time someone tried that with me, I gave my date of leaving and it did include my comp time added to the notice. And I told them when I gave my notice.

The only way this should pass is that if on leaving the company, comp time is paid out just like wages.

[RebelOne]

85. In the '80s, I worked for a city magazine in Miami.

When we had deadlines, we would have to work all day and into the night. We only got comp time. Well, I would rack up 40 hours overtime within a week. I would take a week off after the magazine went to press. But there were complaints because I wasn't there. Finally, I was paid overtime.

[Glimmer of Hope]

99. My firm used to give employess an option to take comp time instead of OT.

They stopped doing that becasue people acccumulated so much time that they would take off for months.

[fasttense]

22. It's just how capitalism works...or doesn't

Capitalism always, always, always puts downward pressure on wages. The less they pay us to do the work the more they get to keep. It's simple.

Get rid of CEOs and Board of Directors. In their place, put the workers who actually do the work. Four days a week you do your regular work. On the 5th day, you come in and make decisions on what to do with the profits of your work. You decide. Not some elite trust fund baby who has been spoiled all their lives. Not some overpriced hit man who calls himself a CEO. The workers have to take back the decision making process of running businesses. That way you get a say in what and how you do the work. That way you introduce democracy into the workplace.

[snappyturtle]

24. Sounds like you listen to Richard Wolff too! As much as I agree with it in

principle, I think it will take a long time to come into being. How could
it be implemented on existing businesses? Start ups, yes. imho

[fasttense]

116. Yes, I'm hooked on his on-line classes.

When I 1st listened to him I was amazed at how what he said fit so well into what I have seen around me in the economy. I've read and listened to Paul Krugman and Keynesian economics and thought it made some sense. But I kept wondering how a society could ever control anyone they allowed to accumulate so much wealth from the labor of others. I always resented working for others and felt I was a servant and had no control over my life even when I had management positions. I never thought accumulating great wealth should be my goal in life and hate the fact that I have to earn money to do what I really want to do. When Richard Wolff explained how our extra work, our excess labor, enriches a few powerful people, it made sense. It all fit together. What I saw, how I felt and what had happened in history. It all came together for me. So yeah, I really think he is on the right track.

It may take a long time. I don't know, but as he says "For decades nothing happens then in a very short time decades happen."

Just 5 years ago could you have imagine the LGBT community being able to make such a powerful impact on society and politics as they have now? I mean states allowing LGBT folks to marry and fighting discrimination against them, allowing them to openly serve in the military, when before they had to hide and lie. Strides like that I could never have imagined 5 years ago.

So, I think the 1st step in getting away from capitalism is talking about it. That's where the LGBT community started, just talking about it. And I plan to write about it, but I need to do some more research. I need to fully understand how it could all come together.

[snappyturtle]

117. Oh, DO write more. I think you are so correct...we need to

talk about 'it' and spread the word far and wide!
You're also right about the LGBT community's fast
advance in the last few years. Decades happened
in a short time in this case for sure.

You connected directly to me when you wrote about
working and enriching the all ready rich! I have worked
for myself for several decades now. I'm not rich by
anyone's standards but I am more satisfied with my
life than when I worked for someone else. However,
I have descended into despair. I'm frozen from creating
as of the last three months! I see glimmers of hope only
to then see the truth. The more I make the more I lose
(in taxes) to fund the playground of some of the richest,
i.e., the MIC for example, which I have now grown to hate,
knowing the rich pay less.... & the misery it causes.

I am trying to get into my 'happy place'. When I'm truly
immersed I am the most happy. But,my happy place is
fantasy....and that is a problem because it exists in such
a different place (a place we don't have time for) from our
reality today. My work is playful in nature and most of society
has little time for play outside of frequent visits to electronic
media of choice. Oh, well, I guess I need to persevere. Maybe
my work can serve as momentary relief to the real world!
End of rant!

[fasttense]

120. I understand your misery with capitalism.

Our capitalist system just assumes we all want to be billionaires and make wealth and more wealth (or wealth and more wealth for someone else). There is just so much more to life than making money, but in a capitalist system that has to be everyone's first priority or we starve. Most normal people need more meaning than that in their life.

Is that sculpture your design? That is very cool.

Don't let despair ruin you. It can creep in and just takeover sometimes. I really think We the People will find our way out of this capitalist hell hole we have sunk into. I really think there is hope for a better future. Everything changes even if you don't expect it. Hang in there and keep trying to create. When this mess finally clears, you don't want to have to relearn how to get back to your "happy place".

[snappyturtle]

121. Thanks for the encouragement....yes, it's my design. There's a

whole set of ideas for a display at the American Folk Art Museum
in NYC....but I only have a few done and now this non-productive
period...ugg! I'm living in a 400 sq. foot studio and need more room.
Going to look at an alternative this afternoon...in the country....which
would do a lot to elevate my mood! Again, thanks...you've made
me feel more hopeful! And, do write more after your research. I'll
be watching for it!

[OnyxCollie]

44. Follow Germany's lead.

German law requires corporations to have a two-tier board structure composed of 50
percent ownership interests and 50 percent worker interests (Gedajlovic & Shapiro, 1998;
Tuschke and Sanders, 2003). It is based on a principle known as “co-determination” (Tuschke
and Sanders, 2003). The two tiers are the supervisory board (Aufsichtsrat), similar to the board of
directors at U.S. firms, and the management board (Vorstand), similar to top management teams
at U.S. firms (Tuschke and Sanders, 2003). The management board is in charge of corporate
operations and reports to the supervisory board (Tuschke and Sanders, 2003). Charkham (1994,
as cited in Gedajlovic & Shapiro, 1998) shows a clear distinction between executive and nonexecutive
(monitoring) functions in Germany.

[Yavin4]

59. And Germany has the third largest economy in the world

They have unions, social welfare programs, and they make some of the best engineered products on the planet.

[Blue_Tires]

72. +1000

[wandy]

23. Comp time never works. Even if you are with a good company....

are paid well, get plenty of vacation and can take comp time any time you want it. Comp time never works!
Their is always that one last thing that needs to be done. Their is always that unexpected emergency. Their is always that middle of the night phone call. Their is always that snowstorm where you can't get shift coverage. Their is always that, don't worry it's just a 'one night' business trip.
Comp time just plain doesn't work.

[TomClash]

25. No Democrat should support this nonsense

This is a pay cut, pure and simple. And when exactly is the "comp time" going to delivered? Never.

[bullwinkle428]

26. Eric Cantor is the author of this piece of shit - don't let anyone forget that.

K&R.

[Overseas]

27. Hope Democrats can get the message out and sweep out the GOP in 2014

But Democrats couldn't stop the gerrymandering that created too many "Republican" states, even when majorities support our values.

[bobclark86]

28. My company already does this...

We get paid for 37.5 hours a week, and that's it. (There is an exception for comp time in my industry, but we don't make enough to qualify). Most of the time, I have 50 or so. Some of my coworkers have thousands of hours accrued, but no time to take it.

Oh, and if we complain, we get sacked.

[rhett o rick]

29. How can anyone be against "Working Family Flexibility" ??

What I dont understand is that I thought it was common for employers to offer/permit comp time use today.

[Aviation Pro]

30. Or skilled employees could just say fuck you enmass....

....resign, take their intellectual capital and their client list and sell it back to the now exponentially more dysfunctional corporation at triple the price.

That's what I did and it's worked out quite well for me.

ETA: Oh, and if a former supervisor calls and asks for a little unpaid help, tell him/her, "fuck you, you pay for my knowledge. (Do this with a smile). So when you're ready to get serious about saving your job because you don't have the skill set to do it, let me know."

This also happened to me, and yes I got paid.

[Dustlawyer]

31. To stop this we need complete campaign finance reform. The Dems are complicit in all of this!

[global1]

32. Time To Re-Post My Suggestion Of A National Workers Association (NWA).....

Now what would this organization be called and what would it stand for. Here is my first attempt at trying to describe such and organization of workers:

Note: consider this a work in process.

"The National Workers Association of America (NWA) would be organized as an American non-profit 501(c)(4) lobbying group that advocates for the protection of working people in the United States, and the promotion of workers rights including the right to work; free choice of employment; just and favorable conditions of work and unemployment protection. The NWA would support the right to equal treatment, regardless of gender, origin and appearance, religion, sexual orientation. Equal pay for equal work; just and favorable remuneration ensuring the worker and his/her family an existence worthy of human dignity and the right to rest and leisure, with reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

The NWA could have an education component and sponsor training courses in career building, skills training, resume composition, resume posting, interviewing skills and provide assistance with short term vocational training, supportive services to obtain GED placement, vocational rehabilitation. The NWA could provide members with a job registry including job search advice. The NWA would make available salary surveys/advice, human resource and unemployment assistance. It would also be a clearing house for programs that would provide workers career counseling and retraining for new careers. "

Here is a link to my original post and the responses. Note I also posted this again when Eric Cantor proposed to end overtime pay:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022032941

[cstanleytech]

35. You know, it might not be such a bad idea.

That is of course if certain things are included such as they can only ask that the worker stay for a maximum of 5 hours when their shift was due to end and the employer must provide the employee with free transportation home if the employee needs it.
They are now required to make it so a worker has 12 hours off from the time their last shift ended and their new shift begins and trust me its needed because I have seen employers have a worker close at 10 pm and then have to be there the next day at 6 am.
Also the employer must give the employee 2 full days off per week.
Now why would I actually consider this you might wonder?
Allow me to explain.
My brother works for a major grocery chain here in the South that has stores in GA, SC, NC and now Florida since they bought out a major chain there and this chain point blank refuses to authorize overtime and my brothers girlfriend who works for Walmart and they to refuse to authorize any overtime.
Both companies however have no problem messing around with their hours and making them work late and then have to be back at work early the next morning so atleast if they added the law requiring 12 hours off before the next shift can begin it would make it easier on people like my brother and his girlfriend and actually allow them to rest.

[cap]

39. In the long run, the system you propose impacts a workers health negatively

Nurses already have long shifts and shortened work weeks. Look at how obese many of them are. It is from the stress of a long day. 12 hour work days lead to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, etc. You need rest. An extra day off doesn't help your body recover as quickly. You need your 8 hours of sleep consistently. You can't make up a sleep deficit by sleeping in the next day. It takes a few days at least to recover the lost sleep.

12 hour days get to be less tolerable as you age. Most of the workforce is aging.

[cstanleytech]

41. cap, thats why I said they need to by law have

it so the employer have to let the employees have 12 hours between shifts for now on. Right now they dont have to do that.
They can have you stay till 10 and be back at 6 the next morning and when you factor in travel time and everything that doesnt allow for 8 hours of sleep.
Granted some employers might be tempted to abuse the system but thats why there is the required 2 days off that I suggested.

[cap]

122. even voluntary shifts wont work

because it relies on nurses understanding the impact on their health. People often don't understand the stressors of obesity.

[cap]

123. the point is not the rest period between shifts but

the shift itself is too long. You can't make up that fatigue with a 12 hour break between shifts.

[cstanleytech]

124. You already responded to this post before cap, check your dates and maybe

grab yourself some coffee to wake yourself up.

[cap]

125. So???

[cstanleytech]

130. "So???" Well it might make you look like either an idiot to others here on the forum not to mention

in general its frowned on to post on threads that have been dormant for an extended period of time and it can lead to your getting banned if you do it often enough and if you annoy the wrong mod but hey feel free to continue if either or even both of those two things are your goal.

[Javaman]

36. as I wrote in another thead on this same topic...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=476602

17. the old "comp time" bullshit.

evil overlord boss: FINNLY!!! Get in here!!!

groveling plebe worker bee Finnly walks in bowed and averting his eyes from his boss.

Finnly: y-y-yes sir, you called?

EOB: We of the morally superior bent believe in treating our workers with respect...

Finnly: y-yes, sir...

EOB: DON'T EVER INTERUPT ME!As I was saying, so we all have decided, when I say we, I mean me, to do away with overtime

Finnly's eyes flash open in terror, his lower lip quivers, he swallows...

Finnly: n-n-no overtime?

EOB: That's right, ma'boy. Instead you will be given Comptime. (EOB does that awful thing people do with their fingers to indicate quotes)

Finnly: Comptime?

EOB: Yes, yes, yes. If you happen to work overtime, you will take time off in trade. Just think if you work say, oh I don't know, a 50 hour week, you can take 10 hours of comptime the following week. How's that, huh?

EOB smiles a toothy evil grin.

Finnly: uh, um...I...er...

EOB: Yes, man, spit it out!!

Finnly: I, um, already work 80 hour weeks now...

EOB: Why you little shit. You ungreatful little so and so. Here, I'm trying to help you and your other...other...drones and you mock me!

Finnly: does this mean, sir, I can have all of next week off?

EOB: You play me like the fool! You are one of those "hard workers" (he uses that finger thing again) who likes to game the system! You are nothing but a slacker! A no account! GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!!!

Finnly: Y-yes, sir.

Finnly meekly and dejectedly walks slips out.

EOB: Hmmm, I think I need to take away their coffee now too.

[cap]

37. Tax evasion pure and simple

This will have a major effect on government revenues--state, local, and federal. Another tax break for the corporations pure and simple. And you are going to try and close the deficit???

Plus you get to slash workers wages. Also, few time keeping systems allow you to enter in comp time, so the corporations have have no record of what actually happened.

Also, how are you going to take a corporation to court to recoup lost wages? What you spend on a lawyer will eat up the wages in question.

Pure, evil genius.

[cap]

40. They are trying to make our wages competitive with BRIC countries.

They have already succeeded in the South. That's why corporations are setting up shop down there

[krispos42]

42. Of course they do

k_&r

[stevenleser]

46. Corporations and the wealthy are making money hand over fist right now.

If you listened to my last show http://www.blogtalkradio.com/lesersense/2013/05/05/making-sense-with-steve-leser--intl-workers-day-and-more or saw my recent appearance on FBN http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022784970 , I talked about the stats.

US Corporations have $1.7 trillion banked right now and the wealthy globally have $20 to $30 trillion just in their offshore accounts.

We don't need to give the wealthy or businesses any additional money. They have a ton. This is all now pure greed and selfishness.

[Maven]

48. What a lovely Orwellian name.

So it's all about "flexibility" for us, is it? And for good measure, let's throw the word "family" in there so no one questions how wholesome this bill is.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

51. They tried this during Bush...

Here's a clip I extracted from the Malloy Show where he talked about it:

http://server4.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyMemories/That%27s_for_my_benefit!.mp3

[DotGone]

53. Does anyone not think taking comp time will not be held against you?

I can hear the Big Boss Man now: "You know, Smith, I don't think you have the Company's best interests at heart. You know, taking that paid time off and neglecting the important work here."

[NBachers]

106. "While you were gone, we found out we could get along quite well without you, you know."

[villager]

54. Will Obama "reluctantly" put that "on the table" at some point?

Even though he doesn't "really" want it?

[AverageJoe90]

71. I very much doubt he WOULD want it. Let's hope it ISN'T, either.

[villager]

74. One would think he wouldn't want an expanded surveillance state, expanded crackdowns on

...medical marijuana dispensaries, or to risk Social Security getting cut either.

But he seems to be full of surprises, that Obama.

[AverageJoe90]

77. I doubt he really wanted any of those things, either.

But then again, the President really doesn't have as much power to actually get things done as we'd all like.....just ask the Republicans in Congress.

[villager]

83. He's powerless over the executive! Powerless over the DOJ! Powerless to use a bully pulpit!

And yet, you know, he's great!

Except that, you know, he's powerless!

Great but powerless!

[GaYellowDawg]

89. All the Republicans have to do is ask.

And then we get the Hope-a-Dope. Asked to hope while the President ducks and covers, letting the conservative agenda steamroller him.

[PDJane]

55. Everything over 8 hours that you work, you lose efficiency. By the time you've worked 69-80 hours,

You spend more time fixing errors than you do making progress. We are not machines. In fact, part of the reason for the last financial downturn was tired and greedy traders doing things no one in their right mind would do.

This is a typically Republican idea that abets wage theft and stupidity.

[Starry Messenger]

56. Comp time is theft.

And trying to take it was definitely held against me when I worked at a place that did this.

[truebrit71]

57. They are becoming more and more brazen...

...Think Bubba Republican Voter will put two and two together, do you think they'll finally figure out that they've been played by the party all these years to vote against their own self-interest..?

Yeah...me neither...

[lpbk2713]

58. The GOP is still at war with FDR's New Deal.

They will never give up until unions are abolished and workers have to take whatever
work they can get under any working conditions the greedy employer decides on.
And if no one has noticed, we are close to that point right now.

[TBF]

60. Of course they do - now that they've beaten down the unions it's full steam ahead. nt

[Addison]

63. It never ends, does it?

The GOP contempt for the poor is startling. And they call themselves "Christian."

[SleeplessinSoCal]

66. Add it up, and you have less workers, but more work. Permanent unemployment.

If only the Dems had a backbone. We could use this to our advantage.

[blkmusclmachine]

84. Correction: DEMS have plenty of backbone. Look how they stand up against their Base. And are always

so accommodating to Republican framing of issues and helping pass Republican legislation, even when the Republicans are "out of power."

Our DEMS lie about what they really believe, and who they really serve. The Party Plank is a sick joke for these traitors.

[DallasNE]

68. There Has Already Been A Chipping Away At FLSA

Ask any nurse. (There are special 8/80 rules for them)

And child labor in agriculture.

Plus a new class of "exempt" employees.

"Comp time" has been around forever for exempt employees except the comp time doesn't come close to matching the overtime hours worked. Plus, comp time will be imposed on workers and not the other way around. It will screw the employee. It is called capitalism.

[Kablooie]

69. Oh it will be fun when we get a Republican President and Congress someday.

It's bound to happen.
We are getting a preview of all the insane things they will slam the country with when they get control.

I know many of you think they won't ever get control again but I disagree.
The GOP has targeted stupid people as their base and have been extremely successful at it.
In spite of minorities becoming a growing voting element, as long as morons remain the Republican base, Republicans will never lack for supporters.

[Blue_Tires]

73. Remember when the French shut down the country in protest of

extending the 35-hour week?

[Hubert Flottz]

75. So did the Nazis.

[HockeyMom]

76. Been there, done that

Public school. They cut all the part-time people to work the buses in the morning. Principal had a brainstorm that the TA's could work the buses instead and come in an hour early, every day, for the entire school year. We were hourly staff. OT? Nope she wanted to give comp time instead. Think that about. One hour every day for the entire school year. HOW? That was 100+ hours. Plus, that would mean hiring a SUB when this staff took their comp time. By the end of the year, they had only taken an hour here or hour there, certainly not the hundred hours they were entitled to. Impossible without spending a lot of money. Then there was the issue of Head Start, and Special Needs, classes where it was MANDATED that at least 2 adults were in these classes at all times with the kids. Might "work" in an office of adults, but certainly not with children in school.

BTW, I myself declined to do this as a 1:1 aide. My responsiblity was to "my child", not getting other kids off buses. I told the Prinicpal I would call the Union, and his parents. She dropped it with me. I do not think there was ANY TA who got all of their Comp time off. Very, very bad idea.

[blkmusclmachine]

79. I'm confident that the White House can find a bipartisan middle:

and it's located somewhere between GOPville and Teabagistan.

[Newest Reality]

80. Fooey!

Why not just cut to the chase and get it over with.

The family dynasty's claim their territory's, dissolve the legal and political system as we know it, declare a Fiefdom, install themselves as Lords and Ladies and just call the rest of us Serfs.

Where else can it go, anyway without revolt?

You get your long, slow, painful decline with lots of props and diversions rather than a quick, one, two, three. POP!

[Half-Century Man]

82. No

Fuck you
Eat shit
Die gravy sucking Pigs
The fact that this is not a global law, a part of the United Nations Charter, a paragraph in the Geneva Convention, is one of the great FAILINGS of all forms of religion. It may be actual proof of the non-existence of G*D, or the utter damnation of mankind.

Republicans can have those things, when they agree to wait at shift changes at work sites to be hit once by each departing employee with a baseball bat; Don't worry, we'll be tired.

[WillyT]

86. K & R !!!

[Skittles]

90. please, I haven't seen that in 20 years

seriously

[HiPointDem]

91. kr

[Blue Owl]

92. R = Reverse

Those stupid, stupid fucks.

[mountain grammy]

93. So how's that "no union" thing working so far?

[The Last Dem.]

94. Just.

What a working family needs, more time off without any money.

[obxhead]

96. Printed this out

Several copies will be distributed on the lunch room tables.

Hopefully my coworkers will read it and be as outraged as the rest of us here.

[KoKo]

118. +1 Sounds like a constructive action. The more people who know what this

could mean in our workplaces, the better. Republicans will suffer along with everyone else.

This is a Workers Rights issue. The Repugs/Corporations/Wall Street want to dismantle all worker's rights. And working fast to do it.

[Brigid]

97. Does anybody else think . . .

That the very idea of this, let alone passing it, in any civilized country, would lead to rioting in the streets? It should. Holy Mother of God!

[ananda]

103. Many people will end up homeless.

Literally.

I mentioned this bill to someone today who said
she would literally be homeless without overtime.

[fascisthunter]

104. and the New Democrats/DLC will help the GOP

1% suck-up brown-nosers who hold their wealth over life, liberty and justice. In a democracy, wealth isn't supposed to be allowed to determine the will of a majority.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

105. kicking, rec'ing and vomiting.

Not kidding.

[Island Blue]

115. Republicans would like for us to be China.

I think that's their idea of "Capitalist" paradise. (For themselves & their rich buddies, of course. Fuck the worker bees.)

[Dawson Leery]

119. Next, they will vote to repeal the 13th amendment.

[peacebird]

127. I am struggling to work only 8 hrs a day and failing because there is simply too much work

Deadlines are always shorter than is reasonable, the amount of work is greater, and they are not hiring.

[Dawson Leery]

129. What will be done to stop Milton Friedman's terrorism on workers?