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Ways to Cheat Workers Out of Pay By
the U.S. Labor Department January 12, 2004 It apparently was not enough for the Bush administration to deny up to 8 million workers overtime pay under new regulations the Labor Department is planning to implement in March. Now it is also giving employers a roadmap for cheating workers out of what they have earned. "This is appalling considering its coming from an agency that is funded by U.S. taxpayers, and charged with helping employees get a fairer shot in the workplace," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "The Department of Labor should be renamed the Department of Employer Advocacy and Assistance, for all the good it does for actual workers." Overtime rules preempting 1938s Fair Labor Standards Act will likely be out in March. With that changeinitially voted down by Congress but revived in omnibus budget legislation later this monththe jobs qualifying certain titles of workers for overtime will be altered. While the government has touted the new law for making approximately 1.3 million more workers eligible for overtime pay, the Labor Department has published a list of ways employers may avoid paying it. One option included making a "payroll adjustment" that results in "virtually no or only a minimal increase in labor costs," by cutting workers hourly wages to make regular and overtime pay equal to the original salary. Or employers can provide workers just enough of a raise to make them ineligible for overtime under the new rules. So, employers could lawfully require employees to work as many hours as they want, without paying them more. "Workers who take time away from their families to give their employers more time of the job deserve fair compensation," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "Recognizing, protecting and improving the basic overtime pay right for Americas workers ought to be the Labor Departments first priority." Tom Toles, cartoonist for the Washington Post, cleverly illustrated the motivations of the Bush Administration behind both its overtime regulations and proposed changes in immigration policy. Click here.
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