Date: 1996-07-30
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Chairman. I want to thank my colleague. the gentleman from St. Louis. MO for allowing me to speak today. and for yielding the time to me. Mr. Chairman. I would like to support the bill. I like the idea of employees being able to decide whether they are going to have overtime pay or comp time. In fact. when the President made his announcement in June. I thought we would see an effort to come out with real flex time and a compromise. In fact. as has been quoted from the majority side. nationwide polls show an overwhelming number of Americans support the concept. But also. from a different poll. it shows that an overwhelming number of workers expect to be forced by their employer to accept comp time instead of overtime pay. That is what is wrong with the bill. The bill should be addressing both concerns of the workers: First. the need for the flexibility. but also. the fear that .they have that they may not be hired if they do not agree beforehand to take comp time instead of the pay. Before coming to Congress. I helped manage a business. We used comp time. It was successful. both for the business and for the workers. But every time it was the choice of that employee. more so than this bill ever does. because it worked. It was successful. I would hope that if this bill goes down. and if not this Congress. the next Congress we will really be able to come together and come up with one that not only allows the flexibility. but also provides the teeth to the bill that it needs. It would be so important to have a way to be clear whether it is employee choice or employer mandate. This bill was drafted to expect employers to do what is right and give that choice. Ninetyfive percent of our employers will do that. The bill lacks the teeth because the 5 percent of the employers. whether they be in the garment industry or any other industry. are the ones who will take advantage of this and take advantage of those workers. That is why about 60 percent of those workers are afraid they are going to be abused with that. Mr. Chairman. the Republican comp time proposal is that the employer and not the employee decides who earns the comp time and who will earn the overtime pay. This bill does not contain clear provisions to prevent the employer from forcing workers to take time off in lieu of overtime pay. I know both the bill and the managers amendment has some effort to try to prevent coercion. but we need more than just the statement in here. We need some real teeth in the law. In my district people depend on their overtime pay oftentimes to make ends meet. They should not have to live in fear of losing it. particularly some workers who are seasonal workers. who have to earn overtime for the period of time they can work because the rest of the year they cannot practice their trade. whether because of weather or because of whatever conditions. In H.R. 2391 employers maintain the ultimate control when to grant that worker the comp time. Regardless of the amount of notice the worker provides. employers can deny the use of comp time if the firm claims they would be unduly disrupted. Again. I think this is something we can work out. but we have not been able to. What good is it to earn comp time if the employer does not allow you to use it. or forces you to use it instead of your vacation time that you may have earned? Additionally. this proposal does not include the protections necessary to make sure workers receive their comp time when a business files bankruptcy. I know we have talked about that. but this bill does not deal with the Bankruptcy Code. Comp time should stay in the same place wages do in the Bankruptcy Code. This bill does not set that up on that level. H.R. 2391 does not give the employees the full remedies available under the law to an employer who violates the overtime law. Civil fines should be imposed on employers who operate comp time programs in violation of the overtime laws. Instead of this Republican proposal. I would hope we can work on a real bipartisan proposal giving employees real comp time. Comp time means employees have the choice of taking their time to go to the soccer games. I use it. Mr. Chairman. and I know how important it is. but I also want to make sure it is the employees choice when to do it. I urge my colleagues to vote "no" on the bill.