I

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1982

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide compensatory

time for employees in the private sector.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 24, 2001

Mrs. BIGGERT (for herself, Mr. BALLENGER, Mr. NORWOOD, Ms. DUNN of

Washington, Mr. BOEHNER, Mr. STENHOLM, Ms. GRANGER, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Ms. PRYCE of Ohio, Mrs. MYRICK, Mr. GREENWOOD, Mrs.

NORTHUP, Mrs. BONO, Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas, Mr. HOEKSTRA, Mr.

MCKEON, Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HILLEARY,

Mr. TANCREDO, Mr. DEMINT, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. GOODLATTE, Mr.

CULBERSON, Mr. KELLER, Mr. EHRLICH, Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina, Mr. SMITH of Michigan, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. RILEY, Mr.

CUNNINGHAM, Mr. PITTS, Mr. KOLBE, and Mr. REYNOLDS) introduced

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and

the Workforce

A BILL

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide

compensatory time for employees in the private sector.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working Families

5 Flexibility Act of 2001’’.
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1 SEC. 2. COMPENSATORY TIME.

2 Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

3 (29 U.S.C. 207) is amended by adding at the end the fol4 lowing:

5 ‘‘(r) COMPENSATORY TIME OFF FOR PRIVATE EM6 PLOYEES.—

7 ‘‘(1) GENERAL RULE.—

8 ‘‘(A) COMPENSATORY TIME OFF.—An em9 ployee may receive, in accordance with this sub10 section and in lieu of monetary overtime com11 pensation, compensatory time off at a rate not

12 less than one and one-half hours for each hour

13 of employment for which overtime compensation

14 is required by this section.

15 ‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this

16 subsection, the term ‘employee’ does not include

17 an employee of a public agency.

18 ‘‘(2) CONDITIONS.—An employer may provide

19 compensatory time to employees under paragraph

20 (1)(A) only if such time is provided in accordance

21 with—

22 ‘‘(A) applicable provisions of a collective

23 bargaining agreement between the employer

24 and the labor organization which has been cer25 tified or recognized as the representative of the

26 employees under applicable law, or
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1 ‘‘(B) in the case of employees who are not

2 represented by a labor organization which has

3 been certified or recognized as the representa4 tive of such employees under applicable law, an

5 agreement arrived at between the employer and

6 employee before the performance of the work

7 and affirmed by a written or otherwise

8 verifiable record maintained in accordance with

9 section 11(c)—

10 ‘‘(i) in which the employer has offered

11 and the employee has chosen to receive

12 compensatory time in lieu of monetary

13 overtime compensation; and

14 ‘‘(ii) entered into knowingly and vol15 untarily by such employees and not as a

16 condition of employment.

17 No employee may receive or agree to receive com18 pensatory time off under this subsection unless the

19 employee has worked at least 1000 hours for the

20 employee’s employer during a period of continuous

21 employment with the employer in the 12-month pe22 riod before the date of agreement or receipt of com23 pensatory time off.

24 ‘‘(3) HOUR LIMIT.—
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1 ‘‘(A) MAXIMUM HOURS.—An employee

2 may accrue not more than 160 hours of com3 pensatory time.

4 ‘‘(B) COMPENSATION DATE.—Not later

5 than January 31 of each calendar year, the em6 ployee’s employer shall provide monetary com7 pensation for any unused compensatory time off

8 accrued during the preceding calendar year

9 which was not used prior to December 31 of the

10 preceding year at the rate prescribed by para11 graph (6). An employer may designate and

12 communicate to the employer’s employees a 12-

13 month period other than the calendar year, in

14 which case such compensation shall be provided

15 not later than 31 days after the end of such 12-

16 month period.

17 ‘‘(C) EXCESS OF 80 HOURS.—The em18 ployer may provide monetary compensation for

19 an employee’s unused compensatory time in ex20 cess of 80 hours at any time after giving the

21 employee at least 30 days notice. Such com22 pensation shall be provided at the rate pre23 scribed by paragraph (6).

24 ‘‘(D) POLICY.—Except where a collective

25 bargaining agreement provides otherwise, an
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1 employer which has adopted a policy offering

2 compensatory time to employees may dis3 continue such policy upon giving employees 30

4 days notice.

5 ‘‘(E) WRITTEN REQUEST.—An employee

6 may withdraw an agreement described in para7 graph (2)(B) at any time. An employee may

8 also request in writing that monetary com9 pensation be provided, at any time, for all com10 pensatory time accrued which has not yet been

11 used. Within 30 days of receiving the written

12 request, the employer shall provide the em13 ployee the monetary compensation due in ac14 cordance with paragraph (6).

15 ‘‘(4) PRIVATE EMPLOYER ACTIONS.—An em16 ployer which provides compensatory time under

17 paragraph (1) to employees shall not directly or indi18 rectly intimidate, threaten, or coerce or attempt to

19 intimidate, threaten, or coerce any employee for the

20 purpose of—

21 ‘‘(A) interfering with such employee’s

22 rights under this subsection to request or not

23 request compensatory time off in lieu of pay24 ment of monetary overtime compensation for

25 overtime hours; or
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1 ‘‘(B) requiring any employee to use such

2 compensatory time.

3 ‘‘(5) TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT.—An em4 ployee who has accrued compensatory time off au5 thorized to be provided under paragraph (1) shall,

6 upon the voluntary or involuntary termination of

7 employment, be paid for the unused compensatory

8 time in accordance with paragraph (6).

9 ‘‘(6) RATE OF COMPENSATION.—

10 ‘‘(A) GENERAL RULE.—If compensation is

11 to be paid to an employee for accrued compen12 satory time off, such compensation shall be paid

13 at a rate of compensation not less than—

14 ‘‘(i) the regular rate received by such

15 employee when the compensatory time was

16 earned, or

17 ‘‘(ii) the final regular rate received by

18 such employee,

19 whichever is higher.

20 ‘‘(B) CONSIDERATION OF PAYMENT.—Any

21 payment owed to an employee under this sub22 section for unused compensatory time shall be

23 considered unpaid overtime compensation.

24 ‘‘(7) USE OF TIME.—An employee—
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1 ‘‘(A) who has accrued compensatory time

2 off authorized to be provided under paragraph

3 (1), and

4 ‘‘(B) who has requested the use of such

5 compensatory time,

6 shall be permitted by the employee’s employer to use

7 such time within a reasonable period after making

8 the request if the use of the compensatory time does

9 not unduly disrupt the operations of the employer.

10 ‘‘(8) DEFINITIONS.—The terms ‘overtime com11 pensation’ and ‘compensatory time’ shall have the

12 meanings given such terms by subsection (o)(7).’’.

13 SEC. 3. REMEDIES.

14 Section 16 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

15 (29 U.S.C. 216) is amended—

16 (1) in subsection (b), by striking ‘‘(b) Any em17 ployer’’ and inserting ‘‘(b) Except as provided in

18 subsection (f), any employer’’; and

19 (2) by adding at the end the following:

20 ‘‘(f) An employer which violates section 7(r)(4) shall

21 be liable to the employee affected in the amount of the

22 rate of compensation (determined in accordance with sec23 tion 7(r)(6)(A)) for each hour of compensatory time ac24 crued by the employee and in an additional equal amount

25 as liquidated damages reduced by the amount of such rate
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1 of compensation for each hour of compensatory time used

2 by such employee.’’.

3 SEC. 4. NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES.

4 Not later than 30 days after the date of the enact5 ment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor shall revise the

6 materials the Secretary provides, under regulations pub7 lished at 29 C.F.R. 516.4, to employers for purposes of

8 a notice explaining the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938

9 to employees so that such notice reflects the amendments

10 made to such Act by this Act.

11 SEC. 5. SUNSET.

12 This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall

13 expire 5 years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

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