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Congressional Bill Would Limit IT Worker Overtime Pay

A bill introduced in Congress that modifies what job functions in IT classify an employee as a "professional,” may cost some hourly technology workers a bundle of cash.

S. 1747, the Computer Professionals Update Act (CPU Act), amends Section 13(a)(17) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) by broadening the scope of employees that work in a computer or IT occupation and the duties that they perform. If it becomes law, S. 1747 would severely limit the ability of hourly technology workers making $27.63 per hour or above to claim overtime.

Sponsored by Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., the CPU Act adds language exempting employees from overtime that work on computer networks, databases, information security and other IT job classifications to the law. In addition, the proposed amendment expands the "primary duties” of those workers, including the wording of "network,” "database,” "debugging” and "securing” in various descriptions.

In his blog, Simmons pointed out that Hagan's top-20 contributors included such companies as Bank of America, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Time Warner - all of which he believes may have IT costs they'd like to have lowered.

"I find it unlikely that Hagan and her co-sponsors of the bill, of their own volition, would take it upon themselves to do this,” Simmons said, in an interview with Government Technology. "It's unlikely it was an independent decision on their part. I suspect [there are] other things at hand.”

http://www.govtech.com/education/Congressional-Bill-IT-Worker-Overtime-Pay.html

Who needs Republicans when you have Democrats gladly shilling for corproations?

#politics