Update: Fight for RNs Right to Overtime Pay

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

i personally would like to see a full text of HR 2665, but am unable to on the House of Representatives website. .

Website to locate federal legislation introduced by Congress is:

http://thomas.loc.gov/

Remember to search by Congressional Session. Current for 2003-2004 is 108th.

[Carotid]

this is all i'm able to locate. . . .

Overtime Compensation Protection Act of 2003 (Introduced in House)

HR 2665 IH

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 2665

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to protect the rights of employees to receive overtime compensation.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

July 8, 2003

Mr. KING of New York (for himself, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. LATOURETTE, Mr. ANDREWS, Mr. OWENS, and Mr. KIND) 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 protect the rights of employees to receive overtime compensation.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Overtime Compensation Protection Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. PROTECTION OF OVERTIME COMPENSATION.

Section 13 of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is amended to read as follows:

`(k)(1) The Secretary shall not promulgate any regulation that has the effect of exempting from the requirements of section 7 any employee who is not otherwise exempted pursuant to regulations promulgated under this section that are in effect on the date of enactment of this subsection.

`(2) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit the Secretary from reducing the number of employees who are exempt from the requirements of section 7 by regulations promulgated under this section.'.

not the full text of the bill, just summary.

[BeachNurse]

Ok, I lean conservative..but I don't know enough about the subject. I haven't come across anything that tells me overtime pay will be gone. When is this supposed to happen?? The last thing I read said that RN's who are paid hourly will continue to receive overtime pay for any hours over 40 worked in a week.

I am personally an exempt employee. I always have been with this company and knew that when I was hired. When I was in the hospital I was "forced" to work OT but was paid for it (mandatory call). Here I make my own schedule..leave when I want, get here when I want but make sure my work is done-even if that means staying late some days.

My friends working fulltime in the hospital are being paid quite WELL to do overtime, and one co-worker who moonlights in the NICU is being paid $50 extra for each 4 hours of PRN she does. In the "real world" I have not seen or heard a thing about overtime pay being taken away.

I agree with what Tom said..no OT pay no OT work.

[ayndim]

The OT laws have not changed that much. If employers wanted to they could have always made nurses exempt. But let's say the worst happens. Your employer changes you to exempt. Then wants you to do mandatory OT but not pay you. How many times will that happen before the hospital has NO nurses? I would be looking elsewhere immediately. And of course, if they aren't willing to pay OT I would never have adequete childcare for my young children and neither would most nurses w/children, I suspect.

Someone asked a question about state OT laws. Although, federal laws supercede state, this is only the case where federal offers more protection. If your state adopts stricter OT laws that is fine (i.e., RN's must be paid OT). What the state cannot do is if the Federal law states RN's must be paid OT, the state cannot say that RN's can be exempt.