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Trading Overtime Pay For Flexible Hours By Connie H. Deutsch There is a new bill that was passed by the House of Representatives a couple of months ago that is on its way to the Senate. It's called The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 and I'm a little concerned about some of the provisions in it. On the surface, it sounds wonderful. Flexible hours, flexible vacations, flexible everything. But one thing stood out as I was reading it, and that is that the employee doesn't have any protections under the new bill. Up until now, under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, you have been able to earn time and a half for overtime hours. Under the new bill, you wouldn't get extra pay; you'd only be able to take time off, with a maximum of 160 compensatory hours. And that time off would be at the employer's discretion, not yours. This is the kind of law that would render the labor unions obsolete, or at best, paper lions. The short story is that after you have gotten permission to take two weeks in December as your comp time and you've already paid for your plane tickets and made your travel plans, your boss can tell you that you'll have to make different arrangements because they have suddenly gotten very busy and your absence would disrupt the operation of the business (and that get out of jail card is clearly stated in the House bill). The House of Representatives can argue that employees are covered under this bill because employers will not be allowed to fire them or take retaliatory measures against them if they should refuse to work on the days or at the hours that the boss is asking them to work. This doesn't take into account the fear factor. People who are at the low end of the pay scale or those who are earning a decent wage but have families to support and mortgages to pay, are often too afraid to refuse an employer's requests/demands for fear of the different types of retaliatory measures that an employer can take that are difficult to prove. I didn't see anything in the bill about health insurance, paid vacations, sick days, National holidays, etc. Since this bill is all about flexible hours, I didn't expect to see any provision for medical leave or maternity leave so I wasn't surprised by their absence. This bill is being touted as friendly to families because it makes it easy for employees to work from home and have time to spend with their families. The problem is that most people at the low end to mid-level range of the pay scale can't afford to stay home with their families. They have to work at least 40 hours a week and most of them depend on overtime pay to make ends meet. Most of the bill talks about full-time employees who work 40 hours a week but it didn't say if you would be guaranteed 40 hours a week as a full-time employee. It also didn't say whether the customary benefits have been taken off the table under this flexible everything bill but I would think that should be a major consideration before the Senate votes on the bill. Connie H. Deutsch is an internationally known business consultant and personal advisor who has a keen understanding of human nature and is a natural problem-solver. She is known throughout the world for helping clients find workable solutions to problems that are often complex and systemic in nature and part of a corporation's culture or an individual's pattern of behavior. Connie has hosted her own weekly radio show, been a weekly guest on a morning radio show, done guest spots on radio shows around the country, and appeared as a guest on a cable television show. Connie wrote a weekly newspaper Advice Column for sixteen years and has been invited to speak at local colleges and given lectures around the country. She also wrote the scripts for a weekly financial show on cable television. Connie is the author of the books, "Whispers of the Soul," "A Slice of Life," "From Where I'm Sitting," and "The Counseling Effect," and is the co-author of an eBook, "Getting Rich While the World Falls Apart" which is being offered as a free download on her website. She has also written and produced two CDs on Meditation and Relationships and has done coaching on customer service and employee relationships. Her website: http://www.conniehdeutsch.com/ See more of her articles by clicking here ConnieHDeutsch Articles
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business, flexible hours, no overtime pay, House of Representatives, Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013,
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