Cass Ballenger: “if I may again say, this has nothing to do with changing the 40-hour work week. I do not know where they are coming…”

“if I may again say, this has nothing to do with changing the 40-hour work week. I do not know where they are coming from. We have had three hearings on this bill. Every employee that testified, testified in favor of the bill. We had no employee testify against it. Only the Washington union leaders testified against this bill. Let me read a letter from some of the best companies in the country for employees: ``Working Mother Magazine recently recognized our companies as being among the top 100 with the best employment policies in the United States for working mothers. The article in Working Mother and other publications highlighted some of the creative solutions companies are developing to accommodate the unique needs of working parents. In our quest to create a family friendly work environment, we have explored a variety of benefits and policies. One of the issues consistently raised by our employees is a need for greater flexibility in scheduling work time. Unfortunately, our ability to provide this flexibility is significantly hampered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Because of the FLSA, we are not allowed to offer compensatory time off to our hourly employees. Many companies, like ours, offer an array of benefits to working parents such as child care assistance, extended maternity or paternity leave, and telecommuting. These programs can be expensive and that expense often makes them prohibitive to small employers.”