Will I still get paid for overtime?

[Rick in Maryland]

This new Bush administration anti-overtime, anti-worker plan has really got me confused. I am trying to figure out if my employer will still have to pay me for overtime. Everywhere I look leaves me more confused. I am an electronics technician with military training and experience. I also have an Associates degree in electronics. I work a lot of mandatory, non-voluntary overtime. A lot of weekends, a lot of shift work, and a lot of hours. A lot of time at work I would rather be home spending time with my family.

My employer has been taking steps as of late to really put a clamp on overtime. They have done everything they can think of except the obvious and simply hire more people. The funny thing is that much of what they do to limit overtime actually causes more overtime. I worry that with the new Bush overtime directives, they will simply decide they are no longer legally required to pay for overtime and not pay it anymore.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[kikiek]

1. If you don't have union protection good chance you could lose

it. Will depend on if your boss is able to reclassify your job.

[Massacure]

2. It also depends on what state your in.

Some states rules wills override the federal ones.

[elehhhhna]

3. It's up to your employer, now. The new rules SPECIFICALLY STATE

that "specialized training" includes military & any courses you take beyond high-school.

If you have a high-demand skill set (like nursing) that's fairly competitive, you're probably okay.

Has anyone considered what this will do to tax & social security receipts? Did you know that health and workers comp. insurance premium rates factor on payroll dollars, not headcount?

This rule change is a HUGE job-killer. OT Policy was invented to encourage employers to hire when their business grows.

[Warpy]

8. Nurses are the MAIN target of this bullshit!!!

Hospitals have already started to try to reclassify registered nurses as management, since they theoretically (although not really in practice) supervise LVNs CNAs and housekeeping staff. Nurses are working 12 hour shifts already, and there are mandatory overtime 12 hour shifts on top of their regular shifts. The only thing keeping these BASTARDS from working nurses 60 hours a week is OVERTIME, which they invariably HOWL about!!

The nursing shortage has been a fact for 15 years. They don't care!! They would rather cut costs on the backs of overworked nurses and make the profession even more unattractive just to save a few bucks on this quarter's bottom line. That is how hospital execs are rewarded, themselves, by cutting costs, and nurses are always first in line to take a hit.

It's not going to start happening at any great rate of speed until after the election. They want these BASTARDS back in Congress. It's up to us to SCREAM about this and make sure everybody knows what they did to us!

[TheRovingGourmet]

9. Our health insurance payments are set based on what was

paid out the previous year, for the most part. Overtime is adjusted when computing our worker's compensation bill. It is probably different in other states.

[SoCalDem]

4. Sorry, Rick.....

If your boss "wants" to pay you overtime, he can probably figure a way to get more money to you.....but if he wants to keep the money for himself, he "could" work you 20 hours one week when business is slow..and then work you 60 the next week...at regular pay...or he could drop you to just below where the benfits kick in..

I worked at a place once where 35 hours for 6 weeks straight, automatically made a person full time, with full benefits..

They would schedule people 35-45 hours a week for FIVE weeks, and the 6th week they would go on the schedule at 20 hours....so that even if they worked over on a given day or two, they would not get close to the 35 hour threshold...

If your boss ever "consults" with you about hiring or firing, or asks you to do work that is managerial, you are probably off the overtime..:(

[chum]

5. So - who is affected?

and who isn't? Who do they say is newly eligable? Has anyone been told they are losing their overtime? Need examples.

[SoCalDem]

6. Lots of new rules here..

clickie

[Misunderestimator]

7. Probably not :(... I know that computer programmers will not qualify

any longer... and how on earth they can say that fewer than a million people won't lose their overtime?? :shrug:

[GoldenOldie]

11. New Manual of Labor Regulations

This new bound book of Regulations consist of over 500 pages. Wanna bet that those that wrote (it is usual to have various sections written by several individuals) it and those that voted on it never read it. Our Representatives have already stated that they do not have time to read all the regulations that their constituents will have to live with. They have no trouble blindly passing these laws/regulations and than we get a lot of trash talk from them when questioned.

Who is left to protect the worker if our elected representatives care so little about what they place their signature to.

During my tenure of working for an agency of DOD, I worked closely with the agency auditor. The Treasurer of this Agency had just received a new DOD Regulation that she was to follow and she was unable to comprehend what it meant as it seemed to go against everything she had done during her 20-years of service within the same department. The Auditor read it and was also stymied as to the content of the instructions. This exceptional Auditor traced it down directly to the DOD writer located within the Pentagon and was questioning the actual writer on what was intended. To the Auditor's astonishment the writer in her frustration screamed back "I just write the regulations, I do not have to understand or know how they are to be carried out." This is exactly what will be happening throughout our Nation only on a grander scale and it will be the worker who will lose.

[TheRovingGourmet]

10. Hiring additional people is a risky and expensive proposition

but some employers take their overtime expectations to the extreme. There comes a point where you have to start hiring.

[PATRICK]

12. Whether legal or not

most management will be looking to try to take advantage of this. That goes without saying unless you work maybe for Ben and Jerry.

If illegal what will you do to make them back off this time? The assault is relentless and abetted by the WH.