Roby talks comp time bill: Misinformation the major impediment to passage, U.S. Representative says

The only reason that U.S. Rep. Martha Roby, R-Montgomery, can imagine why people might oppose her proposal to offer employees the option of taking paid time off instead of overtime is because they don’t understand how the legislation works.

But she admits there already are plenty of people who don’t understand it.

Roby said she’s seen confusion and misinformation online and among her fellow lawmakers about the specifics of the bill, what it would do and how it’s different from similar bills in the past.

“It has to be the employee that initiates it,” she said. “If you don’t want comp time, your employer is still required by law to pay you time and a half for every hour of overtime.”

The House Education and the Workforce Committee plans to discuss the legislation Thursday, fast-tracking a deal to let public sector workers opt to take time-and-a-half off instead of overtime pay. That would mean that an employee who works 10 overtime hours in one week could choose to take 15 paid hours off the following week, with employer consent.

It’s not the first time Republicans have worked to change overtime law. Similar legislation has been introduced and failed to clear Congress since the 1990s.

That means there were years of hindsight, debate and amendments to consider when drafting the current legislation. That led to additions that Roby believes addresses the key arguments that prevented other bills from passing.

For instance, the comp time change would have to be part of a union’s collective bargaining agreement before union-affiliated employees could opt for it. And employees can “cash out” extra hours or terminate the agreement at any time.

But that long history of debate means that it also could be hard to convince people that this legislation offers something new.

“It might be (hard) with members who have seen this bill in previous Congresses,” Roby said. “But that’s my job. I’ve already had members say ‘I want to be on that flex time bill.’ It’s comp time.”

She said it would allow working families to better balance the demands of their work and personal lives while protecting the 40-hour workweek.

The bill is part of a package by House GOP leaders that focuses on domestic issues. It’s a priority that Roby said her party hasn’t always communicated well.

“One of the things that we failed to do (in the last election) was to talk about the employee,” she said. “We’re not changing who we are and what we believe in, but (we’re) looking for opportunities to demonstrate to the American people that we care about working families.”

While Roby said she has trouble seeing any reason that the bill wouldn’t gain bipartisan support, she admitted that the fight over the nation’s budget woes has made that kind support difficult to predict.

“It’s not lost on anybody that there’s an ever-increasing divide as it relates to partisanship in Washington,” she said. “But, look, this is about working families. This bill doesn’t deal with those issues. To me, as a working mom, it’s a no-brainer.”

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