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The Family Unfriendly Act

There are two good things to say about the Working Families Flexibility Act, which passed the House this week with 220 Republican and three Democratic votes.

One, the bill is bound to go nowhere in the Senate and, two, even if it did advance, the White House has threatened to veto it.

The bill, in brief, is worse than meritless; it is a fraud. According to its Republican backers, it’s an expression in legislative form of how much they care for families, work-life balance and, in particular, working women. If this is caring, I would hate to see what contempt looks like.

The bill would amend long-standing labor law by allowing private-sector employers to offer compensatory time off in lieu of time-and-a-half pay for overtime. Employers and workers are supposed to agree on the arrangement, but there is nothing to stop an employer from discriminating against those who prefer payment by cutting back on their overtime hours. Nor would employers face any real deterrent against forcing unpaid overtime on workers who fear losing their jobs if they object. The recourse for coerced workers would be to sue, a far-fetched and unaffordable option for most people.

For employers, then, the bill is a way to impose extra work at no additional cost, effectively shifting what would otherwise be worker pay into corporate profits.

For employees who won’t work overtime without extra compensation, the likely result would be fewer hours and overall less pay. For those who will, the likely result would be greater unpredictability in scheduling, which only creates more work stress, as well as higher costs for work related expenses like child care, but with no additional money to meet those expenses.

Now, what about having more time off? Under the bill, employees can use their comp time only at the employer’s convenience. If employees are unable to get timely approval for using the comp time, or decide not to use it, they can ask to cash it in, at which point the employer has 30 days to pay up.

The bill’s Republican supporters have stressed that government workers can accrue comp time in place of overtime pay, implying that private sector workers are missing out on a perk enjoyed by cossetted public sector workers. Wrong. Government employers don’t need to turn a profit, and thus do not have the same incentive as private sector employers to push workers into unpaid overtime. Government employees, who tend to be in unions — as well as private sector unionized workers — also have contracts with safeguards around alternative work and pay arrangements.

For the record, there are many ways for Congress to improve both worker pay and work life balance, including raising the minimum wage, instituting paid sick leave, ending discriminatory pay practices, easing the formation of unions and promoting advance notice for worker scheduling. The House bill ignores what is helpful and embraces what is harmful. http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/the-family-unfriendly-a
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