Trump v. overtime

With help from Marianne LeVine

TRUMP V. OVERTIME: Donald Trump weighed in last week on the Labor Department’s overtime rule, which, starting in December, will double (to $47,476) the salary threshold under which virtually all employees are guaranteed time-and-a-half pay whenever they work more than 40 hours in any given week. It was yet another instance — minimum wage was another — in which Trump struggled to reconcile his working-class populism with Republican Party doctrine.


Trump didn’t come out against the overtime rule, as have many Republicans (including House Speaker Paul Ryan, who in May called it an “absolute disaster”). Nor did Trump embrace the overtime rule, as did Hillary Clinton (“will lift up workers nationwide”). Instead, Trump told the website Circa that he would exempt small businesses from the rule. “We have to address the issues of over-taxation and over-regulation and the lack of access to credit markets to get our small business owners thriving again," Trump said. “Rolling back the overtime regulation is just one example of the many regulations that need to be addressed to do that. We would love to see a delay or a carve-out of sorts for our small business owners."

Morning Shift wouldn’t absolutely swear that Trump knew what the overtime rule was when Circa’s Sara Carter asked him about it; he didn’t speak to its specifics. But Trump took a middle path, much as he did, eventually, on minimum wage (after first stating he thought wages too high and then suggesting he opposed having a federal minimum at all). Trump now favors an increase in the federal hourly minimum to $10 (up from the current $7.25). Congressional Republicans oppose any increase, while Hillary Clinton favors an increase to $12. Still, minimum wage isn’t an issue Trump seems especially keen to talk about. He omitted any mention of minimum wage (or, for that matter, the overtime rule) from his economic speech last week in Detroit. Nor did he mention his support for state right-to-work laws, another instance in which Trump’s working-class populism bows (in this case, entirely) to Republican Party doctrine.

GOOD MORNING. It’s Monday, Aug. 15 and this is Morning Shift, POLITICO's daily tipsheet on labor and employment policy. Send tips, exclusives, and suggestions to [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @marianne_levine @CoganSchneier and @TimothyNoah1.

REGULATOR, REGULATE THYSELF: The Labor Department will pay $7 million to settle 10-year-old claims that it failed to pay overtime owed thousands of DOL employees, reports Law360’s Brian Amaral. The case had been in arbitration prior to settlement.

The American Federation of Government Employees Local 12 accused DOL in 2006 of omitting to pay employees “ suffer or permit to work overtime,” i.e., work outside normal duty hours that an employer didn’t request but knew about (or could have known about) and didn’t try to prevent. AFGE Local 12 President Alex Bastani took aim at previous DOL secretaries Elaine Chao (who served under President George W. Bush) and Hilda Solis (who served under President Barack Obama) in a written statement, saying it was “sad that a decent and hard-working public servant like Secretary Perez has to clean up their mess.” Amaral reports that “it is unclear exactly how many workers will be compensated, but their numbers could stretch into the thousands.” http://bit.ly/2bqK4Tw

FRIENDLY SKIES AGAIN: United Airlines’ 25,000 flight attendants ratified a new contract Friday, signaling improved labor conditions since the airline’s merger with Continental six years ago, reports the Chicago Tribune’s Lauren Zumbach.

The new five-year contract includes double-digit pay raises for attendants at all seniority levels, profit-sharing measures, new medical plan options, and improved retirement plans.

United also said Friday that it reached an agreement in principle with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters that, if approved, will cover 9,000 airline technicians. United CEO Oscar Munoz has consistently said labor relations are a top priority for the airline, and the Association of Flight Attendants President Sara Nelson said the flight attendants’ contract “sets a new industry standard and ensures flight attendants can achieve the benefits of a fully integrated airline.”

Since the 2010 merger, United and Continental flight attendants have been working under different rules. “That means they could only work with crew from the same legacy airline, on planes assigned to that airline, making scheduling or recovering from delays and cancellations more complicated,” Zumbach writes. http://trib.in/2bqLAoM

MEANWHILE, AT AMERICAN: The union representing American Airlines’ reservations and gate agents filed a lawsuit in federal court last week asking a judge to toss out an arbitrator’s ruling for the airline. In the complaint, the CWA-IBT Passenger Service Employee Association, which represents 12,000 American employees, argued that the case was presented to the wrong arbitration panel. Under the Railway Labor Act (which governs labor relations in the airline industry) only the the National Mediation Board has the authority to decide labor disputes, the union said. Yet it was American’s System Board of Adjustment (made up of one union member, one company member and one neutral chairman) that handled the case, reports Law360’s Linda Chiem. The complaint is here: http://politico.pro/2bsuIQp Chiem’s piece is here: http://bit.ly/2bgkmUH

FIGHT FOR $15’S WEEKEND IN RICHMOND: The Service Employee International Union’s Fight for $15 held a convention this weekend in Richmond, Va. The former capital of the Confederacy was chosen to highlight “the enduring effects of racist policies that are holding back low-paid working families of color,” according to a written Fight for $15 statement. Workers vowed to ramp up protests to coincide with the presidential election. More from POLITICO’s Donovan Harrell: http://politi.co/2beVCYQ

MINIMUM WAGE WATCH:

— JUDGE TO DECIDE ON ARIZONA MINIMUM THIS WEEK: A judge ruled last week that many "circulators" who collected signatures for an Arizona ballot initiative increasing the state’s hourly minimum to $12 were ineligible to do so. A final decision on the petition should come this week, reports ABC15’s Anthony Cave. Organizers initially submitted more than 270,000 signatures, but the Arizona Restaurant Association challenged the petition in court. Closing statements are due today. http://bit.ly/2bmTv8I

— $12 ON BALLOT IN COLORADO: A measure to raise Colorado’s hourly minimum wage in stages to $12, up from the current $8.31, will be on the ballot in November, reports the Associated Press. The Colorado Secretary of State certified the measure last week after a petition acquired the 98,000 signatures necessary to make statewide ballots. The $12 minimum would be instituted in 2020. http://cbsloc.al/2bqPUEC

BRACERO ASBESTOS REMOVAL?: An Illinois construction company may face criminal charges for exposing Mexican workers to asbestos, reports the Belleville News Democrat’s Brian Brueggemann.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Kehrer Brothers Construction $1.8 million last year for allegedly importing Mexican workers to remove asbestos without the necessary safety gear. Kehrer contested the fines, and the administrative proceedings with OSHA were put on hold. Now the Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation, DOL spokeswoman Rhonda Burke said. DOJ announced an agreement last year between its Environment and Natural Resources Division and OSHA to investigate and prosecute employers that knowingly put workers in danger. http://bit.ly/2b4sSUZ

MURPHY OIL OR FED EX?: A National Labor Relations Board Administrative Law Judge ruled Friday that Arise Virtual Solutions, a firm that contracts with corporations to provide customer service, violated the National Labor Relations Act by requiring its Florida-based customer service representatives to sign class action waivers as a condition of employment.

The judge said the case was less about class action waivers than about misclassification — that is, whether the customer service reps were employees or independent contractors under the NLRB’s 2014 FedEx Home Delivery ruling. Arise exerted considerable control over the reps hired by the companies it contracted with, the judge said. The full decision is here: http://politico.pro/2bvz1Mc

JUDGE APPROVES SETTLEMENT OVER FOX INTERNS: A federal judge on Friday granted preliminary approval to a proposed settlement resolving the so-called “Black Swan” lawsuit brought by former 20th Century Fox interns who worked on that 2010 film. The interns alleged they ought to have been paid minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Hollywood Reporter’s Eriq Garder reports that the settlement will pay class members $495 and the named plaintiffs between $3,500 and $7,500. The judge has scheduled a fairness hearing in November to decide on final approval. http://bit.ly/2bqYKlw

COFFEE BREAK:

—”Inside the administration’s $1 billion to detain Central American asylum seekers,” from the Washington Post: http://wapo.st/2b4Nxse

— “Mexico’s auto-production boom is driving up labor costs,” from the Wall Street Journal: http://on.wsj.com/2aUFde3

—”Judge hears case on blocking federal protections for transgender people,” from BuzzfeedNews: http://bzfd.it/2b4siXs

— “A congressman slighted immigrants, then embraced them. Now he runs from Trump,” from the New York Times: http://nyti.ms/2aSyaj6

— “Why are American workers getting less productive?” from The Atlantic: http://theatln.tc/2bgsXXk

— “The world is getting better at paid maternity leave. The U.S. is not,” from the Washington Post: http://wapo.st/2bewfWV

—”How Hillary Clinton became a better economic populist than Donald Trump,” from the New Yorker: http://bit.ly/2bgtmJh

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT.

Follow us on Twitter Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey