Saturday, June 28, 2003

Who Will Lose Overtime Pay?

The deadline for submitting comments to the Department of Labor opposing President Bush's overtime cuts is just days away. All public comments must be submitted to the Labor Department before the end of the day this coming Monday, June 30. Act now before it is too late. You, your friends or members of your family could be among the more than 8 million workers who might LOSE ALL of their overtime pay.

Please take one minute to submit your comment opposing Bush's overtime pay cuts by clicking on the link below.

Even if you've acted before, your voice is needed now.


A personal reason I am completely against this outrage.

For some years now I've worked 12 hr. shifts.

When I worked as a nurse these were straight shifts on the night side but for those who don't know working these longer hours can involve 'creative' scheduling.

There were weeks I would be scheduled 5 nights on, 2 off, so forth...completely dependent upon the will of the manager. Every 5 weeks or so I would swing around to 5 days off in a row. Working 5 [or more] nights just before it I'd spend the first day recovering. This was the carrot on the stick?

No matter how I was scheduled it never exceeded 84 hours in a two-week period yet I received no overtime pay unless I worked more than the 84.

Some deal for the company. Not a great life for parents with small children who require adult supervision. It also leaves little time for a family life when you are home and forget about scheduling appointments when you only know a couple of weeks in advance what days you'll be working.

It was one of the reasons I left the nursing profession. You'd be surprised how many employers try to capitalise on the selfless natures of the men and women who enter the nursing profession.

The last several years I've worked a 12 hr. swing shift. This means my schedule constantly revolves from day to night.

In reality I work 60 hours one week and 24 the next though thanks to the billing calendar it's regarded as 36/48.

If you could see the actual schedule this involves very short turn-arounds when you go from nights to days, so while it might sound as if I have a lot of days off, in reality they can be very short ones. My company allows us 8 hours of overtime pay every two-week period which considering the attitudes of many companies is very generous.

What needs to be understood is that 8 hours of overtime isn't a gift my company is giving me. They still come out ahead in the long run for a number of reasons. In fact even if this law goes through I don't think my company will sign-on to it. But I'm very lucky in that respect.

Other companies like ones I worked for as a nurse would swoop on something like this. They don't care. If they lose American nurses due to it they'll recruit foreign professionals like my state is doing now in India.

Don't allow the Bush administration's war on workers to continue. If you don't start fighting back now, you'll become powerless to fight back when something comes around that matters to you.

Overtime is not only just compensation for the sacrifices and allowances one must make in their personal life to accomodate working the longer hours, it's one of the most effective tools workers have to stem the greed and manipulation of employers.