Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 2391 - Working Families Flexibility Act of 1996

(House)
(Ballenger (R) NC and 46 cosponsors)

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 2391. If the bill were presented to the President in its current form, the Secretary of Labor would recommend that it be vetoed.

Although entitled the "Working Families Flexiblity Act of 1996", H.R. 2391 would disproportionately grant rights to employers, not workers:

• H.R. 2391 fails to protect a worker's right to choose overtime compensation or compensatory time-off. In particular, H.R. 2391 would allow employers to decide when workers could use their earned compensatory time-off by objecting if it "unduly disrupts" the employers' operations. An employer could choose to cash out compensatory time-off over 80 hours, which has already been earned and relied upon by the worker, thereby eliminating true worker choice.
• H.R. 2391 also does not provide adequate assurances that workers will receive the compensation they are due. For example, the bill does not provide any protections against certain industries with long histories of Fair Labor Standards Act violations and abuses of vulnerable workers.

Finally, H.R. 2391 would permanently authorize the option of allowing compensatory time-off in lieu of overtime compensation without any plan to evaluate its potential impact on worker's earnings or ability to use earned compensatory time-off.