THE FAMILY FRIENDLY LEFT

Bill Offers Option of Compensatory Time (STEVEN GREENHOUSE, 5/10/03, NY Times)

Congressional Republicans and corporate America thought they had a family-friendly idea that workers would love - give them the choice of taking compensatory time or time-and-a-half overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours a week.

Under current law, employers are generally required to give overtime pay to hourly workers in the private sector and are barred from giving comp time. But Republicans say creating a comp time option would be a boon for workers who want to visit parents in nursing homes or attend weekday soccer games.

But when a House committee passed a comp time bill last month in what would be the first significant change in the nation's overtime law in 65 years, organized labor declared war against the idea.

Lobbyists for dozens of unions as well as some women's groups have flocked to Capitol Hill to fight the bill, insisting that corporations would use such legislation to twist workers' arms to accept comp time instead of overtime. That, opponents say, would hold down corporate costs and reduce take-home pay for workers.

There's a horrifying prospect: people being forced to take paid days off. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2003 8:00 AM