HJR97-1005 By Representative
Owen; also Senator Rizzuto--Concerning the reform of the Fair
Labor Standards Act.
WHEREAS, The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was
enacted in 1938 and is still vigorously enforced by the U.S. Department
of Labor's Wage and Hour Division, with little flexibility for
the changing demographics of the modern workplace; and
WHEREAS, Government entities at all levels have passed
additional labor and employment laws, such as the Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA), which contain provisions compromising the steadfast
rules under the FLSA (for example, if a salaried employee's pay
is docked for a partial day's leave under the FMLA, it may compromise
the employee's exempt status with respect to the FLSA); and
WHEREAS, Employers should be given the option of
offering employees "flex" time, whereby overtime would
be determined as anything in excess of an average of forty hours
per week instead of eight hours per day; and
WHEREAS, An employee's "regular rate" for
purposes of calculating overtime premiums should be the employee's
base salary or wage to avoid the difficulty of calculating additional
payments such as performance bonuses, shift differentials, or
inkind payments; and
WHEREAS, Private employers should be given the option
of offering employees compensatory time instead of overtime pay
for overtime worked, an option that public employers already possess;
and
WHEREAS, The first and last trip of each day that
is within the geographic territory normally covered by an employee
who drives a companyowned vehicle should not be compensable
absent a contrary agreement between the employee and employer;
and
WHEREAS, An employer should not be required to reimburse
employees for travel or relocation expenses in order to meet an
employer's minimum wage obligation; and
WHEREAS, An individual should be considered a volunteer
and not an employee of an entity, regardless of its nature, if
the individual agrees to perform the work without pay for the
entity, in the absence of a promise of employment by the entity;
and
WHEREAS, Time spent in voluntary training provided
by the employer outside of regular working hours should not be
counted as hours worked; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Labor should be prohibited
from seeking back pay on legal theories not yet established in
the courts; and
WHEREAS, U.S. Department of Labor opinions or interpretations
that do not go through the proper regulatory process should have
no force of law except to continue to provide a defense under
the PortaltoPortal Act for employers who acted in
good faith reliance on a U.S. Department of Labor opinion or interpretation;
and
WHEREAS, The current definition of "employ"
prohibits selfinitiation by hourly workers who wish to put
forth extra effort in furtherance of their own skills and careers
by, for example, performing preparatory activities like arriving
at their work station early, getting their tools lined up for
the day's work, or reviewing the day's schedule in anticipation
of their normal duties; and
WHEREAS, Employers should be able to provide supplemental
compensation to salaried exempt employees for working in excess
of forty hours per week without losing the exempt status of such
employees or otherwise violating the "salary basis"
test of such classification; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives
of the Sixtyfirst General Assembly of the State of Colorado,
the Senate concurring herein:
That the State of Colorado urges the United States
Congress to reform the Fair Labor Standards Act to meet the demands
of the modern workplace.
Be it further resolved,
That copies of this Joint Resolution be sent to every member of
the United States Congress urging them to support the reform of
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Committee on Business Affairs.