Overtime pay: Not everyone wants it

[maxrandb]

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/19/news/economy/ot_comp/index.htm

Interesting. Apparently the new overtime rules take effect later this month. Perfect example of what we should be talking about, instead of re-fighting a 30 year old war, that I think most would agree was "dubious" at best.

"NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - This being an election year, President Bush last week dusted off an old proposal aimed at making life a little easier for employees who earn overtime pay."

- OK! Anytime I hear * talking about "making life a little easier for employees" I would hold onto my wallet.

"Flexibility makes all the sense in the world (and Bush's proposal) has all the right-sounding words," said Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. But employee advocates, especially labor unions, "will be strongly opposed."

- Oh my! Another * proposal with "all the right sounding words". Just like "No Child Left Behind", "Clean Air Act", etc.

"Meanwhile, new federal rules governing overtime pay are set to take effect later this month. The changes, which cover who's eligible for time-and-a-half and who is not, have angered labor groups, who contend that some 6 million workers will lose their right to overtime."

"Labor unions so far have blocked prior efforts in Congress to enact comp-time laws for private sector workers. According to MIT's Kochran, the overriding concern is that bosses will use what's supposed to be a perk to exploit employees.

"Is it the employer who controls whether an employee gets to take comp time or overtime or the employee?" asks Kochan. "When unions hear 'flexibility' they hear employers (not workers) get the flexibility to schedule the work."

Moreover, industries that rely heavily on overtime to meet their needs, whether its an automobile maker stepping up production to meet demand or hospitals dealing with a nursing shortage, aren't so keen on the idea of letting employees take time off instead of working longer hours."

Ok DU Econ and Business Majors. What is the real deal here?

[Skittles]

1. all I know is if republicans are for it

we are getting screwed

[CarolynEC]

2. Ugh. Where is the flexibility in...

... "you're no longer eligible"??? What a scam. :grr:

[kysrsoze]

15. No kidding. Now, if you got to make the decision on overtime pay....

or time off, that would be another story. "Not everyone wants it." Yeah, those running the company don't want it. Screw 'em.

[underpants]

3. Do you see-you now can OWN your own future!!

That future will mean less sure money but.........MORE OPPORTUNITY!

Something like that.

[denverbill]

4. Have you ever worked a job where it was impossible to get time off?

Sure, you might 'earn' time off, but try taking it.

As usual, the pukies are pandering to business owners and screwing average Americans.

[trotsky]

5. Yep

You'll accrue and accrue but unless you force employers to honor that time off, you're screwed.

Not to mention that many people rely on overtime wages to help make ends meet. When my dad had a factory job, we were able to do much better than we could have because he put in so much overtime.

Just another way for Repukes to screw the American workers.

[Skittles]

6. yup

there are always those folk with pressing financial needs who vounteer for overtime, bless their hearts.

[underpants]

8. I used to know exactly when I hit overtime

Usually late on Thursday afternoon-I was working in a lumber yard saving money to go back to school.

[TahitiNut]

7. Yup. It's called "IT" or "MIS".

:shrug: Even worse, in my experience, was restaurant work - no matter how long in advance such time was requested. I was TOLD when I was working and had virtually NOTHING to say about it.

[iamjoy]

9. That's The Rub

On the surface, the idea of letting workers chose flex time (extra time off) instead of overtime sounds good. think of a parent who make work overtime one week to take extra time off to spend more time with their children.

These are the questions:
1) Who gets to choose - the employee or employer? If it is the employee, what safeguards are in place to ensure that the workers actually get their comp time? What if they leave the company before taking it? If they don't use it one year, can it roll over to the next?
2) Who enforces the rule so employees actually get to take it and aren't denied time off or pressured by management to work through a busy time (always a busy time in some chronically short staffed industries)

So, it might be a good thing for workers, but you'd have to add more layers of government bureaucracy to make sure the companies don't exploit their employees.

[RebelOne]

11. Yes, I worked for a magazine in Miami.

I had to work some very long hours during deadlines. I did not receive overtime pay, only comp time. When I tried to take it, I got a lot of flak.

[daisygirl]

13. Exactly

In the mid-90s I was manager for a now-defunct New England bookstore chain. As a store manager earning a whopping $340 a week (and that wasn't even my initial salary after the promotion - that was after a raise), I was exempt - no overtime for me. Supposedly I earned comp time - in particular, I was supposed to get something like 4 or 6 days of comp time for the period between Thanksgiving & Christmas when I had to work 48-60 hours a week.

And if I opted to take it, it wouldn't be denied. But there were two problems with taking it: One, there was this mentality that anyone who took their comp time was a slacker, and being perceived that way would mean I'd never get a bigger store and be able to make a decent living (if you break that salary down by how many hours I actually worked in an average week, it's about $7 an hour, and the Boston area wasn't cheap to live in).

And two, I had a fixed payroll budget, and there was no leeway for me taking comp time. If I wanted to take my comp time, I'd have to leave the store short-staffed for the day, and if something bad happened because I did that, I'd have gotten reamed for it...

[Dulcinea]

16. Yes.

I know people who literally have MONTHS of comp time that they can't use because the company will only grant comp time when it's convenient for THEM, not YOU. This deal stinks from the ground up!

[alfredo]

23. I think there is a time limit on using your comp time.

If you don't use it by then, you lose it. I guess then the employer can keep putting you off until the time is up.

[Cocoa]

10. the headline cracks me up

the ones that "don't want overtime" are the bosses.

[maxrandb]

12. My Thoughts Exactly

What is the incentive for employers to pay you overtime, which is real money out of their pockets, over "flex-time" which they may give you at some point in the future?

Oh...That's right! I forgot. In Bushbot World all the employers and corporations are lovable little fuzz balls who rescue kittens from the street and would never, I mean NEVER!!! exploit their employees to turn a profit.

I regret that we are going to have to return to the time of Poor Houses, Canary in the Coal Mine Safety Measures, Child Labor and Sweat Shops before the American people wake up.

Not enough people alive today to remember what it was like before hard fought Labor Rights in this country. Those that forget history are damned to repeat it.

[War Pigs]

14. Overtime pay allows some middle class people to play the same golf

courses as those who see themselves as "a notch above" us (a.k.a. Rush wannnabes), and it pisses them off. They don't want to share vacation destinations and their private schools with mere "wage earners". Those nicer things are supposed to be reserved for the hallowed entrepeneurs and the "management" class. I am fortunate enough to work in the auto industry where if you work 60-70 hours a week and 300+ days a year (year after year) you can upgrade to these things. I have seen the the sourpuss faces of thes people when they realize a lowly pipefitter is living as well as they are. Bitch of it is, they totally dismiss the fact that you spend twice the time on a much more dangerous and environmentally fucked-up job than they do in their air conditioned office. I and my co-workers see and hear this crap all the time. Wouldn't trade my situation for the world (I don't need kneepads to keep my job), just an observation.:toast:

[Dulcinea]

17. You nailed it!

Why should they have to rub elbows with the unwashed masses (as they think of people who work for a living?)

[denverbill]

18. It used to be almost everyone got overtime.

Then, in the 80's, Saint Ronald the Imbecile decided that we needed to reclassify who is management versus who is an employee. Management can be forced to worked more than 40 hours/week without compensation.

Suddenly, damn near everyone who didn't punch a time clock became management.

It's little wonder that Americans are working more hours than any other time since the 40 hour work week was implemented. Owners might think twice about forcing people to work overtime if they actually had to pay them for it.

[Racenut20]

19. Is this thread title supposed to be a joke ???

It isn't really very funny, not to mention about 180 out from reality.

[kskiska]

20. I have to wonder what my now-retired R/W father thinks of this

He worked as an engineer for years, resisting executive status, because he didn't want to give up overtime pay.

[Boudica]

21. Give me the money

I can't remember the last time I didn't have overtime on my check. I work Sunday through Thursday and four of those days at least will be 10 hour days. To top it off now because my slacker co-workers are behind on a project I will have to work on Saturday to help them catch up. And they wonder why when the slacking brown nosing jerks get the training to enable them to be promoted I get upset.Bush better note take my overtime.

All this stuff said about work hard and get ahead is a bunch of crap. Supervisors will just pick the ass kissers for advancement. Hard workers who go above and beyond are seen as fools to be exploited.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

22. Bohica

as in 'bend over here it comes again'. There has never been any instance of oweners GIVING workers anything, ever. Every single thing each of us has is only through the hard work and efforts of those before us to wrest it from the grasp of the bookkeepers, accountants and CEO's.
"Making life a little easier for employees who earn overtime pay?" Will never happen. Has never happened, they will never give up anything without a fight. This is a huge freakin' snmokescreen designed to cloud the issue that working men and women ought be treated as human beings, not machines.......