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Bill Would Nix Overtime Rules

July 14, 2003

Two members of Congressone from each side of the aislehave stepped up with legislation to stop the U.S. Labor Department from implementing rules that would eliminate overtime pay for more than eight million workers.

Congressman Peter King (R-New York) and Rep. George Miller (D-California) introduced the bill that would block the Labor Department from amending the Fair Labor Standards Act that made the 40-hour workweek a staple of American culture.

"Without any open discussion or analysis, the Bush Administration would make the most sweeping change to the 40-hour work week since it was created in 1938," said Congressman Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, who along with the panels other 21 Democrats, has called for hearings. "Not one public hearing to learn directly from employees and experts on what these changes would mean for the incomes of middle class families. The public deserves an airing of the impact these proposed changes would cause."

Analysts have said the changes would threaten overtime pay in professional and technical fieldsthe employment sectors growing faster than any other major occupational group. By reclassifying workers as executive or administrative, it would exempt whole categories of workers who were formerly eligible for the time-and-a-half pay.

IBEW President Edwin D. Hill encouraged IBEW members to reach out to their members of Congress to urge them to support the King-Miller bill. Click here to link to the Congressional Action Center.

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