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"So who attached their name to this horrible idea?
" In addition, H.R. 1180 contains critical protections to ensure employees can continueto choose overtime pay and to prohibit employers from coercing their employees to accept compensatory time instead of overtime pay."
We knew dems were against people being able to make their OWN choices and you are just another example.
Under the new law, employers would be able to compensate hourly employees with paid time off, instead of time-and-a half pay. An employer would be able to compensate an employee who worked five extra hours by having him take two-hour lunch breaks the following week.
I'm all for flexibility. I see nothing wrong here. I've know a lot of people who would have much rather have "comp time" than the extra money. But I doubt this will affect union workers, as union rules are usually not negotiable..
"Insanity"; the common cycle of disenfranchising the people
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boss
For each hour worked of overtime you loss 1/2 your hourly rate for that hour. Your next work day may be shortened but you still lose that 1/2 hourly rate. The employee will lose money over the long term lowering earning's.
You would be receiving that money if you worked your next day and gain nothing, only lose the extra earning on the pay check for that pay period.
The GOP helping the 1% and killing the people who voted for them
It was not always that way when Unions were strong and supported by the workforce; there use to be Overtime based on the 8hr work day guideline, anytime over 8hrs was considered as "Overtime". That was changed by the Right Wing Fight against Unions trying to support Big Industry. Then it became to be that Overtime was only provided AFTER a person first accumulated 40 hrs.
Before that craziness, Overtime was awarded on a daily basis. Over 8 hrs was over time, 15 minutes past 8hr was considered in slang terms as "an easy hour", as well as 15 minutes before start time, was considered as an easy hour.
Companies still made very good profits. Suddenly along too, came the MBA madness, and CEO's. When previously the person who ran companies were "Company Presidents". When that switched over to the CEO being the highest, it also became exactly driven by what a CEO represents. CEO represent "STOCK HOLDER'S INTEREST".
That changed the whole dynamics of Industry, it became more about stock markets trying to break records each quarter. Previously, the Stock Market and Investors understood, they "invest for the long term", it was not about breaking records every quarter, it was about showing a consistency of positive gain, it could be the same each quarter of may rise a % or so....
Today, its about "breaking records" and seeking not 30-40-50-60% profit margins, but 300% and higher profit margins. Everything became lower in quality, benefits cuts, employees laid off and outsourcing.
GREED DOMINATED !!!!!!!! American exported Industry instead of exporting products. PEOPLE ACCEPTED THIS CRAZINESS... I remembering the late 1980's and 1990 the average worked never said a word about the influx of boxes with "made in (Foreign Land)", and slowly layoffs, divisions shipped away, parts imported and no longer made in the USA, and we became nothing more than an assembly system, then we became noting more than a warehousing system dispensing foreign products. Industry was killed!!!!
American started to "DECLINE" in every way.
You want to lay blame, lay it on the University Goon Training, who could not finish a sentence without railing about how they cut a deal to outsource and how they saved the company X'$ and received X's Bonus. Suddenly we saw kids being payed outrageous sums, and the treatment of workers was fought by these same University Goon Training, sitting behind desk, crafting policies that disrespected the workers and devastated the job sector. They were followed up by University Goon Trained Non Ethic Legal Representative known as Lawyers, and Greedy Executives.
The sad part is the Republican system convinced their constituency to back and support the busting of Union, and they used the same ole game... TELLING THEM, "REST ASSURED, THE WEALTHY WHITE MAN WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU", JUST GIVE HIM A BIGGER TAX BREAK AND HE WILL BE YOUR PROVIDER. The larger the tax break he got, the more money he hid offshore as well, and the faster he outsourced...
Still the politicians bought and paid for by industry, sold away the voice of the people, and pushed legislation and promoted policy to assist them in Exporting industrial production to foreign lands.
Still the Right Winger did not catch on, even as the Pensions were no longer company paid, the hook and swindle game of the 401k came and along with it came "CO-pays" for medical and dental. By this time, the Union provision had been whittled away, and people supported the disbanding of Union.
When they never once stopped to realize, many of them supported the concession made by Unions, and many of the very same employees, NEVER ONCE acknowledge it was their own American kids riding on University Degree who were destroying the system. Instead, the parent was boasting about how quickly their child was being highly paid and give massive bonuses, but what they did not stop one minute to do, was to figure out what mischief was their child promoting that brought them high pay and big bonuses. Instead of seeing reality, the parents blamed everyone else's child, but never their own.
America became about nothing but shopping malls purchasing and marquee eateries, and anything these young kids thought would give them high cost exclusive merchants to visit and pretend they were important, when fact is they became the "swindlers and destroyers of industry and community", the older people who hired them, let them run loose because the older person was hung up on the level of profit they were making, until everything became about "which executive could be paid the most, and given the most stock". Stock market manipulation went into overdrive, with the assistance of banks and insurance companies underwriting any kind of over leveraging, and speculator drive up on over inflated stocks, while the point of Industry sank lower and lower.
When there was no more industry, the game became solely about "stock ticker manipulations", which was facilities by the game of Mergers and Acquisitions, that led to corporate collapses, and break up and sell off value, which led to the support of more and more outsourced industry.
Still this very day, people have not awakened to realize they did this, by their lack of awareness and pandering and expecting the wealthy white man to take care of everything. And all he did was what his history has been, and that is "take care of enriching himself" at the expense of anyone and anything.
why is any man being paid $20 or $100 million to pretend to run a company? Why is any man given Million of shares of stock, for taking a job? But we have a right wing system who supports this madness, to pay these people even when the company is failing on a cycle that destruction is assured.
Stock brokers making 100's of million of profit, as if this money just materialized out of thin air!!!??? Then on a 6-8 yrs cycle, the economy is crashed on que. Each time it Crashed, there is a Republican sitting in the chair of the Presidency, Promising to Repeat the Cycle. Telling the public, just give the Wealthy One More Tax break, the Wealthy will take care of you.
Now, we have the worlds number one Swindler sitting in the White House pushing that same script and he has a mass of the exact same mentality types of people, "buying the same delusion"!!!! They are so hung up, they can't even see, he is dismantling everything that has any concern for the people, he is dismantling anything and everything that has made it difficult for the wealthy to turn this into another version of the Plantation as System of Society of Business and Industry.
The Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 requires that Congress comply with the overtime pay standards established under the Fair Labor Standards Act (Congressional Accountability Act, PL. No. 104-1, Sec. 203 citing to 29 U.S.C. 206 (a)(1) and (d), 207, 212(c)). Many who work for Congress—such as staff assistants, press assistants, and legislative aids—more often than not—work long hours and make less than $50,000 annually.
As Rep. Alcee Hasting (D-Fla.) a supporter of the rule, told Bloomberg BNA recently, “We don’t have a set-hour kind of situation here; some kids work 12, 14, 16 hours a day, weekends.” But he adds, “I don’t see how we could pay overtime” for the “17 or 18 people that each of us is allowed to have—that’s problematic for me.”
Irony of all ironies, the feeling is shared by many Democrats who overwhelmingly support the proposed expansion of overtime pay—at least, perhaps, until they realize they may also have to live by it. As the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report notes, it leaves these vocal supporters of the rule in an awkward position of having to acknowledge that “I can’t afford to give raises to the kids” or that “it’s impractical to be paying overtime.”
The newspaper reports that “‘Democratic chiefs of staff are freaking out’ about finding room in their budget for overtime wages” and fear that an overtime mandate will result in having to send staffers home at 5 p.m.
No kidding. Too expensive and leading to less work for employees is exactly whateconomists and employers have said about the consequences of the rule from the beginning. That’s also why Republicans opposed the rule based on the increased burden it would place on employers—and are considering legislation to send the DOL back to the drawing board.
There's no easy answer to American productivity and its competitiveness with other nations.
If American education isn't preparing our workers to be competitive, then it is up to our businesses to get the workers they need up to speed after they are hired.
How that happens is up to the business. Working the skilled workers too much is no answer, as the longer a person works, the less productive they become when fatigue sets in, no matter what the job is. Training is something that is always an expense with every worker, as every job is always different in some way than another job, even if the two are very similar in the basic skills needed.
And for the chronically under-employed, those skills are always lower. Time between jobs causes skills to degrade. Idleness also takes its toll, making a person who hasn't worked for a long time consistently less able to stand up to the physical and mental demands of a new job. So a ditch digger is just as likely as a corporate executive to be a money-loser for the company if the skills aren't there, sharp and current, along with the mental and physical stamina needed to do a job of work.
So- what is a business owner to do? Lose money through shoddy work, or too little work, or lose money in training?
That's where we find ourselves. There are ways to fix it; when unions were strong, the union bore the costs and time of training a beginner. It's our way of the guild system, where a master trains a beginner to become a master. The training is done on the job, with the master correcting the beginner's work. It slows down productivity for a time, but keeps the work competitive.
But only when unions are strong, with lots of members and lots more who want to join them. And union labor costs more because it's worth more when their process works at its best. And a strong union can always cause problems in a company that's getting by just fine producing shoddy work.
Another is to remove the worker. Robots never grow tired late in the afternoon, and they don't care if they are working overtime. In fact, they cost so much that they only become an efficient alternative to humans when they are running full-bore, as long as they can operate without need of repair and maintenance.
Our schools certainly have the ability to train or kids the basics, but that requires money. It's unlikely a grade school teacher has the same teaching skills as a high school shop teacher, or a basic drafting teacher, or a computer programming teacher.
And kids have to grow up enough to be able to join the work force. So even if our public education system was the best in the world, it would still take it a long time to catch up to the demand that exists now.
I think the solution will have to be a combination of many factors. Employers will have to find ways to make their new hires efficient without losing too much money and time while our schools begin major changes in our education system that meet the demands of the 21st century.
Our government will have to help as much as it can to facilitate both. It also needs to consider what only government does best at the same time. If that's more national experimental labs, that's what it might take. Or allowing easier ways for folks to become educated to meet the demands of their jobs. Or facilitating ways to get those who have the skills back up to the physical condition needed to do the work.
None of this is impossible. But none of it will be completely free, either. There will be costs of some kind, in money, time, or, in some instances, personal freedom of choice.
After all, not everyone who once worked very hard physically may be willing to work that hard again, even if that's what they need the most to do to gain steady employment. If they are not willing to get the mental training they need, then what will we need to do?
That's our hardest decision. Do we make a workout regimen a prior requirement for job eligibility for a physical job? Having papers to prove physical fitness is an intrusion to a person's liberty, isn't it?
But at the same time, what's an employer to do when the job he has demands heavy work all day long, and can't find people who will willingly do it day after day, even when it pays just as much as possible?
When a new hire only lasts for a few weeks or a few months before he leaves due to the physical demands, the employer is on a treadmill that steadily loses him a little more money than could be made. And he never has a lot of seasoned workers who can become good supervisors and trainers for the new hires. So he loses money there, too.
But if the employer had some means of financial support that allows him to employ a professional trainer full-time, the added expense of a couple of them could be offset by the increased productivity they can create.
Or sometimes, the hiring of one good educator can make all the difference too. If a job demands a certain level of education, then financial assistance to employ an educator can make it profitable for us all. A few of us will profit directly, while most of us will profit indirectly.
No easy answers, and for sure, no cheap answers. Just discovering our deficiencies will take skilled workers, and those skills don't come cheaply. Volunteers won't fill the gaps, as we now need too many of them and we don't know enough yet about where all our failures lie yet. Some are apparent, but many aren't very obvious at all.
Neglect won't fix anything at all. Nor wishing it would all just go away. Or wishing we could return to the past, when everything was simpler. None of that does nothing at all.
Most republicans hate worker rights and protection. They put on the kneepads for their corporate overlords that they worship for some reason.
Sadly this is more and more true since the Goldwater conservative movement. Why do I say that, Reagan was the one that followed in his footsteps first ad California Governor and then President. Time needs to change. Workers matter. Sadly too many on both sides neglect this.
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"Insanity"; the common cycle of disenfranchising the people
