Union Calendar No. 14
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1
[Report No. 105–21]
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
to provide compensatory time for employees in
the private sector.
MARCH 12, 1997
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commit-
tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and
ordered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 14
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1
[Report No. 105–21]
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide compensatory
time for employees in the private sector.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 7, 1997
Mr. BALLENGER (for himself, Mr. GOODLING, Mrs. MYRICK, Ms. DUNN, Ms.
MOLINARI, Mr. GREENWOOD, Mr. SHAYS, Mr. STENHOLM, Ms. PRYCE of
Ohio, Mr. DOOLEY of California, Mr. UPTON, Mrs. FOWLER, Mr. FOX
of Pennsylvania, Ms. GRANGER, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mr. PETRI, Mr. FA-
WELL, Mr. RIGGS, Mr. KNOLLENBERG, Mr. NORWOOD, Mr. BURR of
North Carolina, Mr. HERGER, Mr. BARRETT of Nebraska, Mr. MCKEON,
Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina, Mr.
HAYWORTH, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. COBURN, Mr. MCCOLLUM, Mr.
EHLERS, Mr. BARTLETT of Maryland, Mr. GOSS, Mr. GOODLATTE, Mr.
MCINTOSH, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. NEY, Mr. BUNNING, Mr. BOEHNER,
and Mr. SMITH of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
MARCH 12, 1997
Additional sponsors: Mr. KLUG, Mr. KOLBE, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. EHRLICH, Mr.
DOOLITTLE, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. COBLE, Mr. HANSEN, Mrs. CHENOWETH,
Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina, Mr. NETHERCUTT, Mr. DICKEY, Mr.
DELAY, Mr. WELDON of Florida, Mr. CHRISTENSEN, Mr. BOB SCHAF-
FER of Colorado, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. HILLEARY, Mr. SAM JOHNSON
of Texas, Mr. LATHAM, Mr. BARR of Georgia, Mr. SMITH of Michigan,
Mr. DREIER, Mr. DEAL
of Georgia, Mr. SCARBOROUGH, Mr.
SNOWBARGER, Mr. CANADY of Florida, Mr. SKEEN, Mr. PEASE, Mr.
HASTERT, Mr. DAN SCHAEFER of Colorado, Mr. RADANOVICH, Mr.
BAKER, Mr. TALENT, Mr. GIBBONS, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mr. ROGAN, Mr.
PETERSON of Pennsylvania, Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma, Mr. SHADEGG, Mr.
COX of California, Mrs. NORTHUP, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. WATKINS, Mr.
BLUNT, Mr. RILEY, Mr. PAUL, Mr. SPENCE, Mr. BLILEY, Mrs. EMER-
SON, Mr. COOK, Mr. JONES, Mr. SALMON, Mr. HASTINGS of Washington,
Mr. PAXON, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. GANSKE, Mr. MANZULLO, and Mrs.
CUBIN
Deleted sponsors: Ms. NORTON (added February 11, 1997; deleted February
25, 1997) and Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas (added February 13, 1997;
deleted February 26, 1997)
MARCH 12, 1997
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 7, 1997]
A BILL
To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide
compensatory time for employees in the private sector.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Working Families Flexi-
bility Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. COMPENSATORY TIME.
Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
(29 U.S.C. 207) is amended by adding at the end the follow-
ing:
‘‘(r) COMPENSATORY TIME OFF FOR PRIVATE EM-
PLOYEES.—
‘‘(1) GENERAL RULE.—
‘‘(A) COMPENSATORY TIME OFF.—An em-
ployee may receive, in accordance with this sub-
section and in lieu of monetary overtime com-
pensation, compensatory time off at a rate not
less than one and one-half hours for each hour of
employment for which overtime compensation is
required by this section.
‘‘(B) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this
subsection, the term ‘employee’ does not include
an employee of a public agency.
‘‘(2) CONDITIONS.—An employer may provide
compensatory time to employees under paragraph
(1)(A) only if such time is provided in accordance
with—
‘‘(A) applicable provisions of a collective
bargaining agreement between the employer and
the labor organization which has been certified
or recognized as the representative of the employ-
ees under applicable law, or
‘‘(B) in the case of employees who are not
represented by a labor organization which has
been certified or recognized as the representative
of such employees under applicable law, an
agreement arrived at between the employer and
employee before the performance of the work and
affirmed by a written or otherwise verifiable
record maintained in accordance with section
11(c)—
‘‘(i) in which the employer has offered
and the employee has chosen to receive com-
pensatory time in lieu of monetary overtime
compensation; and
‘‘(ii) entered into knowingly and vol-
untarily by such employees and not as a
condition of employment.
‘‘(3) HOUR LIMIT.—
‘‘(A) MAXIMUM HOURS.—An employee may
accrue not more than 240 hours of compensatory
time.
‘‘(B) COMPENSATION DATE.—Not later than
January 31 of each calendar year, the employee’s
employer shall provide monetary compensation
for any unused compensatory time off accrued
during the preceding calendar year which was
not used prior to December 31 of the preceding
year at the rate prescribed by paragraph (6). An
employer may designate and communicate to the
employer’s employees a 12-month period other
than the calendar year, in which case such com-
pensation shall be provided not later than 31
days after the end of such 12-month period.
‘‘(C) EXCESS OF 80 HOURS.—The employer
may provide monetary compensation for an em-
ployee’s unused compensatory time in excess of
80 hours at any time after giving the employee
at least 30 days notice. Such compensation shall
be provided at the rate prescribed by paragraph
(6).
‘‘(D) POLICY.—Except where a collective
bargaining agreement provides otherwise, an em-
ployer which has adopted a policy offering com-
pensatory time to employees may discontinue
such policy upon giving employees 30 days no-
tice.
‘‘(E) WRITTEN
REQUEST.—An employee
may withdraw an agreement described in para-
graph (2)(B) at any time. An employee may also
request in writing that monetary compensation
be provided, at any time, for all compensatory
time accrued which has not yet been used. With-
in 30 days of receiving the written request, the