Patsy T. Mink: “This bill is misnamed. It is called flexibility time, but it affords employees and the families absolutely no…”

“This bill is misnamed. It is called flexibility time, but it affords employees and the families absolutely no flexibility. Employers today have flexibility. They have flex-time. They could give their workers time off to do those essential things in health care or to attend to school affairs. They have that flexibility now. Why enact a law that will require people, workers, to work overtime without compensation? One of the best family friendly things that was done by the Congress over 60 years ago was the enactment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, and what it did was to guarantee 40-hour weeks. It liberated families to be able to go home Saturdays and Sundays and be with their families, to be there for dinner so that they could have a family relationship. This bill is going to actually repeal Saturdays and Sundays. It is going to force workers to work on Saturdays and Sundays and be away from their families. How could that possibly be family friendly? The only flexibility that I can see in H.R. 1 is to give flexibility to the employers.”