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Hold the Phone!
September 13, 2004 On September 9, 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to block the Bush Administrations new regulation on overtime pay that took effect on August 23. The measure was part of the huge appropriations bill for fiscal year 2005 that funds the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services. Twenty-two Republican members joined 201 Democrats in support of the provision to block the regulations. Republican leaders in the House dismissed the vote as a political ploy and expressed confidence that the same scenario that unfolded last year would happen again. In deliberations over the fiscal year 2004 appropriations bill, negotiators on a House/Senate conference committee removed language blocking the rules from the final bill. Just as he did last year, president George W. Bush has threatened to veto the entire spending bill, the largest domestic government spending bill, if it includes language blocking his overtime changes. Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) issued a statement saying: "Todays vote to stop the Bush overtime regulations was a huge victory for working Americans and underscores the bipartisan opposition to George Bushs war on overtime pay. This threat is the latest evidence of how dead wrong the Bush administration is when it comes to meeting the needs of the middle class." The IBEW, along with all of organized labor, has fought implementation of the new overtime provisions. Even though the administration claims that their regulations would grant overtime pay to many workers at the lower end of the wage scale, labor analysts have shown that many more workers would lose their eligibility immediately, and that the regulation would eventually put pressure on unionized employers to cut back on overtime in order to compete with nonunion workplaces. "These regulations are the first step in taking away overtime pay for everyone," said IBEW International President Ed Hill. The Department of Labor earlier this year published a list of ways that employers could configure their payrolls so as not to be required to pay overtime under the new regulations.
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Overtime Pay Take-Away Stiffs Millions on Wages... August 25, 2004Former Labor Officials Decry New Overtime Rules... July 7, 200450 Creative Ways to Cheat Workers Out of Pay By the U.S. Labor Department... January 12, 2004House Says No to Overtime Overhaul... October 6, 2003Senate Says No to Overtime Regs... September 17, 2003 |
