Russ Feingold: “the Department of Labor overtime proposal is the latest in a series of assaults on working Americans that began in the…”

“the Department of Labor overtime proposal is the latest in a series of assaults on working Americans that began in the early days of this administration. Right out of the gate, the President made it his first legislative priority to overturn a Federal ergonomics standard that was more than 10 years in the making. I am also concerned about the approach this administration has taken on the collective bargaining process through its use of the Railway Labor Act and the Taft-Hartley Act. We have also seen the reintroduction in Congress of so-called ``family friendly'' workplace bills that we all know really seek to rob working families of vital overtime pay. In March of this year, the Department of Labor proposed a regulation that builds upon these efforts to tear down worker protections by denying millions of Americans vital overtime pay. This proposed rule would change the three tests that must be met to declare a worker exempt from the wage and hour protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, thus opening the door to denial of overtime benefits to more than 8 million workers who currently are entitled to this extra pay for working more than 40 hours per week.”