while you were sleeping

New Policy Violates Workers' Rights

"The Bush Administration proposal to abrogate workers' rights departs from policies in place for over 60 years. The FLSA includes narrow exceptions for certain workers "employed in a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional capacity."

Under regulations released in 1940 to implement the Act, this exception is confined to employees who meet certain standards of income, who are paid a salary rather than by the hour, and whose duties involve supervision, discretion, or independent judgment, i.e., actual executives, administrators, and professionals.

Bush's proposed regulations would expand these terms, changing their definitions beyond recognition: The "executive" exception would be expanded to include even those who spend only a fraction of their time supervising two other employees, and who are without power to hire or fire them.

The "administrative" exception would be vastly expanded to include everyone in a "position of responsibility" who spends even a fraction of their time in so-called administrative work, and even those who do not exercise independent judgment or discretion.

The "professional" exception would be expanded to include workers, like dental hygienists, who lack advanced training and who do not exercise discretion or independent judgment.

Finally, ignoring the clear language of the Act, the Bush plan would declare an entirely new group ineligible for overtime protection. The proposal would classify
white-collar workers earning over $65,000 a year as "highly compensated employees," and then declare virtually all such workers to be bona fide administrators, professionals, and executives - whether their duties support this description or not.

For example, a purchasing agent or bookkeeper earning $65,000 would be ineligible for overtime protection. And, incredibly, this threshold would not increase with inflation, so the "highly compensated" category would include more and more workers - of smaller and smaller means - each year.