Overtime Vote the First of Many Steps

A Senate vote to reject planned rules overhauling private sector overtime practices could eventually have significance in the federal sector, although a series of steps would lie ahead first. The Senate vote, as an amendment to S-1356, a spending bill for the Labor Department and several other agencies, would block rules that likely would result in some low-paid workers becoming eligible for overtime but also in making certain other workers ineligible if their jobs involve certain activities. The administration has threatened to veto any bill seeking to block the rules, and the House rejected a similar attempt in earlier voting. Also, overtime policy for federal employees is not determined by the Labor Department, but by the Office of Personnel Management, which would have to issue parallel rules to make any changes in the federal sector. Further, overtime policy in some occupations potentially affected by the rules, such as law enforcement, is set in law in the federal sector and could not be revoked by rule making.