New Labor rules?
A month ago the Department of Labor issued notice of its intent to revise overtime rules as set down in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). You can find the details at:
http://www.dol.gov/fairpay
This is NOT the Bush plan to extend Comp Time to private employers. This is something else.
Having been a Union steward in the past, I've had some familiarity with the FLSA. For a variety of reasons the thresholds specified in the FLSA as to salary and duties have not been updated in decades. The law states that employees earning over about $9,000 a year are professionals and exempt from Overtime requirements, something that is clearly no longer true in the workplace. What legislation has left behind, has been taken up by the courts and arbitration.
The datedness of the tests in the FLSA leaves us to rely upon case-law to find interpretations of how things should be. Unfortunately that leaves employers, unions, and unrepresented employees with plenty of wiggle room to classify employees as exempt and non-exempt. I say unfortunately, since resources determine how hard you can fight in court and greatly influence the end result. Because of this, any effort to diddle the system will cause a hue and cry from both halves, unions and employers, that the new 'clarifications' will unbalance the system.
There is a point to that. The new rules may very well define whole classes of employees as exempt that previously were non-exempt, and thus deprive them of their overtime pay. Conversely, "managers" that fall under the salary bar ($23,660/year) may suddenly start getting OT they haven't had for years. The first point will cause the Unions to scream, the second point will cause Business to scream. I believe this is the prime reason that the FLSA hasn't been touched in as long as it has, and I'm worried that it was a republican administration that kicked it off.
http://www.dol.gov/fairpay
This is NOT the Bush plan to extend Comp Time to private employers. This is something else.
Having been a Union steward in the past, I've had some familiarity with the FLSA. For a variety of reasons the thresholds specified in the FLSA as to salary and duties have not been updated in decades. The law states that employees earning over about $9,000 a year are professionals and exempt from Overtime requirements, something that is clearly no longer true in the workplace. What legislation has left behind, has been taken up by the courts and arbitration.
The datedness of the tests in the FLSA leaves us to rely upon case-law to find interpretations of how things should be. Unfortunately that leaves employers, unions, and unrepresented employees with plenty of wiggle room to classify employees as exempt and non-exempt. I say unfortunately, since resources determine how hard you can fight in court and greatly influence the end result. Because of this, any effort to diddle the system will cause a hue and cry from both halves, unions and employers, that the new 'clarifications' will unbalance the system.
There is a point to that. The new rules may very well define whole classes of employees as exempt that previously were non-exempt, and thus deprive them of their overtime pay. Conversely, "managers" that fall under the salary bar ($23,660/year) may suddenly start getting OT they haven't had for years. The first point will cause the Unions to scream, the second point will cause Business to scream. I believe this is the prime reason that the FLSA hasn't been touched in as long as it has, and I'm worried that it was a republican administration that kicked it off.
posted by Corwin at 12:50 PM
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