Overhauling Overtime

Although the impact on federal workers of new overtime rules put in place late last month by the Labor Department is unclear, unions have rallied against the regulations as a dirty trick to strip the rights of the American worker.

"It is clear that working families that are already struggling in these difficult economic times will see their paychecks shrink," the American Federation of Government Employees said in a recent press release, reacting to the implementation of the regulations.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced changes to the long-standing Fair Labor Standards Act in April, saying that the new regulations are needed to clarify and strengthen rules on overtime compensation. She derided the existing overtime system as "a lawsuit lottery." In 1974, Congress applied the FLSA regulations to the federal government and the Office of Personnel Management was given responsibility for regulating overtime rules for executive branch agencies. In the past, the Labor Department has determined the criteria for which employees are eligible for overtime pay, and OPM has traditionally followed that guidance.

Instead of clarifying the situation, however, the regulations were released in an extremely dense volume that muddied the process of how the new rules would apply to the federal government. OPM officials have yet to announce if the federal workforce will follow the new guidelines.

A labor expert and lawyer with the conservative Heritage Foundation said many of the Labor Department's new regulations are part of an effort to institutionalize changes that have developed since the law was originally written.

"In a lot of cases they are codifying court decisions or the Department of Labor's own practices," said Paul Kersey. "I think they will simplify it [and] you will have all the rules in one place where all the employers and employees can look at it."

According to Kersey, the rules will not cut into workers paychecks.

"Certainly no one is going to lose overtime protection," he said. "The [private sector] employers that have implemented the new regulations have found that either there is no change or workers actually gain overtime … there is no reason to believe that would be different for the government."

AFGE maintains its opposition to the overhaul. Employers "will exploit the job classification loopholes provided by the new overtime rules. The Labor Department should take these new rules back," union officials contend.