Why I support Working Families Flexibility Act

Dear Editor, Re “LETTER: U.S. Rep. John Faso voted to take overtime pay away from employees,” by Mike Sweeney, May 7, 2017: The letter makes several misleading claims regarding worker protections included in the Working Families Flexibility Act.

First, the Working Families Flexibility Act would not force employees to receive compensatory time instead of overtime pay. Unless an employee has entered into a collective bargaining agreement, each employee must voluntarily agree with an employer to receive this form of compensation. The legislation specifically provides protections to employees against the forceful use of compensatory time.

Second, if any employee opts to receive comp time and does not fully utilize all of their accrued time off by the end of the calendar year, employers must provide monetary compensation of all unused time. Additionally, employees who opted to receive compensatory time off may, at any time, request that they receive monetary compensation for any unused time.

Third, compensatory time has been provided to public sector employees across the country for years without any major issues. H.R. 1180 would simply extend that same option to private sector employers in certain states who choose to provide comp time as an optional benefit to employees.

Lastly, states like New York have laws that are considered more protective than the Fair Labor Standards Act, which means that their rules and regulations supersede those of the federal Department of Labor. I fully support the rights of states such as ours to decide how they can better protect employees beyond the existing federal protections. U.S. Rep. John J. Faso, R-Kinderhook Kingston, N.Y.