The White House spin doctors went into overdrive this week as the Bush administration issued final regulations to take away overtime rights for many working Americans. Initial news reports suggested that the administration had scaled back its initial proposal to limit overtime rights for employees, with administration officials insisting that President Bush's overtime plan will have "no impact" on American workers and will preserve overtime pay for such workers as firefighters and nurses.

But a closer analysis of the regulations shows that the administration pressed forward with eliminating overtime pay for a huge swath of middle-class workers--many who make as little as $23,600 a year, says the AFL-CIO.

All workers earning a salary between $23,660 and $100,000 per year are at risk of losing overtime. The test for these workers is whether they satisfy the job responsibility and education standards, and the new rule weakens these standards, making it easier to deny overtime to these workers.

Under the new rule, for example, a worker may be considered a "professional" based upon on-the-job training instead of an advanced degree, as required by the old rule. And an administrator now only is required to perform "exempt" job duties a small percentage of his or her time, instead of at least 80 percent of the time, to lose overtime rights.

"Instead of helping the millions of Americans who are looking for jobs, this administration has given employers another reason not to hire new employees and instead forces current workers to work overtime for free," said AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy in a statement.

"Our nation's strong work ethic is based on the principle that a person's earning potential should not be restricted by anything but their own willingness for hard work. The president's proposal contradicts this and the original intent of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which was to discourage employers from forcing any worker—no matter what how much or little they earned--to labor inhumanely long hours."

For the first time in history, hourly workers may also be denied overtime pay. Although licensed practical nurses, for example, will continue to receive overtime pay, the implications for registered nurses, who typically are paid on an hourly basis, are disastrous. Under these rules, employers could force RNs to work overtime without receiving extra pay.

These changes "are particularly disturbing for healthcare professionals and the patients for whom they care," said McElroy, when research clearly shows a clear link between excessive overtime and an increased number of medical errors. With overtime pay eliminated, hospitals and other healthcare providers have little incentive to end mandatory overtime and hire more staff to ensure safe staffing levels and improve the quality of patient care, says the AFT

Throughout this process, President Bush has circumvented both houses of Congress--already on record against taking away overtime rights from workers--by using the regulatory process to impose the regulations. The Labor Department has announced that the new rules will take effect 120 days after publication in the Federal Register. Please fight this effort to give working American's a pay cut by signing the AFT's petition to save overtime.

April 21, 2004