House OKs GOP ‘Comp’ Time Bill - East Idaho News
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House OKs GOP ‘Comp’ Time Bill

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150871846?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1368122521715Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Just in time for Mother’s Day, House Republicans on Thursday successfully pushed through a bill aimed at mending the party’s standing with women voters.

The Working Families Flexibility Act, a bill that allowed employees to take time off instead of overtime pay, passed in the House of Representatives Wednesday night and was billed as a “straight-up answer to the problems that working moms and dads are facing,” according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va.

Led by the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., a mother of two, the legislation aims to give private-sector employers the same ability that government workers have to take either comp time or overtime pay.

“This is about choice. This is about flexibility,” Roby said at a news conference Tuesday. “I guess my question would be, if it’s good enough for government employees, why isn’t it good enough for the private sector?”

While Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has exhorted women to “lean in,” negotiate for higher salaries and push for fair pay, she has also called on employers to make workplace policies fairer for women who are also mothers by allowing flexible work options.

The problem, say labor and some family advocate groups like the National Partnership for Women and Families, is that this bill allows businesses to pay women less under the guise of giving them more flexible work options.

Proponents of the legislation, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Society for Human Resource Management, which represents employers, say it gives workers, especially parents, the ability to take time off to be at parent-teacher conferences or doctor’s appointments.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work: A person who works more than 40 hours a week can arrange with their employer to take that time in the form of compensatory (comp) time, instead of overtime pay. Each hour of extra work is worth an hour and a half of time off.

According to the bill, agreeing to time off instead of overtime pay can’t be a condition of employment, and the employee can also choose to take the money instead of time at any point.

Employers can deny requests for time off at any time, as long as they can show that it might “unduly disrupt the operations of the employer,” according to the bill.

And just as it is for the government, the bill would undoubtedly be a cost-saving measure for businesses as well.

Only three Democrats joined the 220 Republicans in approving the measure.

What’s next for the bill? Most likely nothing, if Democrats have anything to say about it. The White House has said it would potentially veto the bill if it ever got to President Obama’s desk. And there is no indication that it ever will, as long as Democrats remain in control of the Senate.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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