House Subcommittee Witnesses Tout Flextime

May 15, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A US House committee heard testimony about the benefits of flexible work schedules in the private sector and how such arrangements could likewise help private-sector employees.

The House Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and the Workforce held the hearing as part of its efforts to research possible new legislation extending workplace scheduling flexibility to the private sector, House officials said.
 
Subcommittee Chairman Charlie Norwood (R-Georgia) contended that current law “fails to provide private sector workers with what they need and expect to have in terms of workplace flexibility.” 

Subcommittee witnesses included:

  • Donald Winstead, assistant director for compensation management at the US Office of Personnel Management, who pronounced the federal government’s flextime efforts an “important fixture in the federal workplace.” Some 92% of federal agencies offer flex schedules, according to a 1998 survey.
  • Thomas Anderson, Fort Bend County, Texas human resources director, who complained that “it is troubling that the federal government has not extended this same benefit to hardworking private sector employees who contribute equally to this nation’s workforce and economy.” 
  • Andy Brantley, University of Georgia vice chancellor for human resources, who said  “I believe employees at private universities should be afforded the same flexibility that their public sector counterparts enjoy to help meet their own work-family needs by allowing all employees the opportunity to have the choice between compensatory time and overtime pay.”

Representative Judy Biggert (R-Illinois), author of the Working Families Flexibility Act (HR 1982), which would allow private-sector workers the same ability to use compensatory time flexibility arrangements, said Congress should “ensure that private sector workers are permitted the same degree of flexibility under the law as their public sector counterparts.”

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