Congress Considers Overhauling The Workweek Republicans Want To Give Employers, Workers More Flexibility; Unions Leery

The 40-hour workweek has been a basic standard of the American workplace for nearly 60 years, but many in Congress want to change those rules in an age of two-worker and single-parent families.

Republican leaders say one of their top priorities this year is to pass laws giving workers and employers more flexibility to schedule the workweek.

President Clinton has signaled that he also is interested. But unions are opposed.

“What’s developing is a debate over what we see as a standard workweek and a standard day,” said Suzanne Smith, co-director of New Ways to Work, a San Francisco research and resource center.

Bills introduced in Congress would let workers put in longer days in exchange for more three-day weekends, save up paid time off to attend teacher conferences or opt for time-and-a-half comp time instead of time-and-a-half pay for overtime work.

But it also would mean changing the Depression-era law that established the 40-hour workweek with time-and-a-half pay for overtime. (One of the original purposes of the law was to prod employers into hiring more workers.)

Labor unions say changing the federal Fair Labor Standards Act would give employers too much power. They fear that employees would be coerced into working longer hours and giving up premium pay.

Interest in the issue is high.

Republicans are taking the lead on a jobs-and-family issue in traditionally Democratic turf. Sensing the appeal of “flextime,” Clinton has responded with proposals of his own. Some compromise may emerge.

“This is like riding the horse in the direction that it’s going in,” said Susan Seitel, president of the Work & Family Connection. “This the future of the workplace. We must have flexibility.” Seitel’s suburban Minneapolis firm tracks the changing nature of work.

Peggy Taylor, lead congressional lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, disagrees.

“This doesn’t represent what working people want in terms of flexibility,” Taylor said. Union members account for about 15 percent of workers.

The flextime debate has been gradually taking shape. Last year, the House passed a bill by Rep. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C., that would allow employees to choose time-and-a-half comp time instead of pay for overtime hours. About one in five workers gets overtime in a given week.

The Senate did not act. But Clinton responded by unveiling a similar comp-time plan during the presidential campaign. The president also proposed to expand the Family Leave Act to allow employees unpaid leave for medical appointments and school activities.

Ballenger has reintroduced his bill this year. And a Senate bill authored by Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., goes further.

Ashcroft’s bill would combine a comp-time option with flexible work scheduling that’s been a popular benefit for federal workers. (The government has a special exception to the federal labor law.)

“Flexible work arrangements have been available to federal government workers since 1978,” Ashcroft said. “It is high time that the workers in the private sector of this country enjoy the same benefits.” The provisions in Ashcroft’s bill would only apply if the employer and employee agreed. The bill would:

Allow employees to choose time-and-a-half comp time instead of overtime pay. Unused hours would be cashed out after the end of the year, for the same money employees would have received if they had taken overtime pay.

Allow employees and employers to schedule any combination of hours within a two-week, 80-hour period - instead of the traditional 40-hour week. Employees could vary starting times, lunch breaks, and quitting times - or work more than eight hours a day in exchange for a day off. About half of federal workers are now on flexible schedules.

Allow employees to request extra work hours in a given week so that later on they could accommodate a medical visit, school activity, or some other personal priority. That way, workers could avoid loss of pay.

The AFL-CIO’s Taylor said Ashcroft’s bill “totally destroys the concept of the 40-hour workweek.” Taylor acknowledged flexible scheduling seems to work for federal employees, but she said government service differs from private industry.

“You don’t have the profit motive driving employers to squeeze the last dollar out of employees,” she said.

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