Clinton Proposes Allowing More Time Off for Workers

President Clinton upped the ante Monday in the bid for votes from American working families, proposing legislation to allow workers an array of new choices for taking time off from their jobs.

Clinton outlined a plan to allow employees to take as many as 80 hours of “flex time” in lieu of overtime pay. He also proposed expanding use of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to allow parents to take as many as 24 hours of unpaid time to attend their children’s school academic functions.

The initiatives set the stage for a new tug of war with Republicans, who introduced their own proposals last week to aid working families, including a provision that would allow workers to take compensatory, or “comp time,” the equivalent of Clinton’s “flex time.”

Administration officials conceded that there is little chance a Republican-controlled Congress would adopt the proposals the president outlined Monday. And the White House indicated that it is unlikely to sign off on the GOP measures.

The president’s announcement renewed GOP accusations that he is shamelessly stealing Republican ideas and claiming them as his own. The Republicans’ plan, like Clinton’s, calls for allowing workers to take comp time, but the GOP would give employers greater voice in the decision than would Clinton.

Former Sen. Bob Dole, the presumed GOP presidential nominee, said in New York: “Another idea he borrowed from the Republicans. . . . He ought to have an idea of his own one of these days.”

Clinton announced his initiatives at the start of a day of campaigning as he attended a yearly “Family Reunion” conference here hosted by Vice President Al Gore and his wife. Clinton ended his day speaking at a fund-raising event in New York sponsored by the Democratic National Committee.

Under Clinton’s plan, an employer would have to grant a worker the equivalent of 1 1/2 hours off for every hour of overtime worked if the worker requests the time off at least two weeks in advance. An employer could deny the request if the time off is sought less than two weeks in advance.

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The proposal applies to nearly 80 million workers now covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which applies to employees of companies that have gross sales of $500,000 or more a year and engage in interstate commerce.

“Most employers in America would like” the option of granting the time off, Clinton said. “But it’s also important how it’s designed because it will work only as a family-friendly decision if there is a genuine partnership” between employers and employees.

The president was joined here by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton who recounted her difficulties, as a prosperous attorney in Little Rock, Ark., in balancing work with her responsibilities as a mother.

“The trade-off between time and money has become harder and harder for many working mothers and fathers,” Mrs. Clinton said. “I look around and see what happens in so many families today. Many employers penalize rather than help parents who need to adjust their schedules to try to provide for pressing family concerns.”

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Republicans called Clinton’s plan a blatant move to help organized labor. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said that Clinton instead should endorse a the Republican “family flexibility” bill, which he said gives the administration a chance “to put the interests of American families above that of the Washington union bosses.”

Clinton’s initiative, however, is expected to face opposition from labor unions, traditionally one of the Democratic Party’s staunchest allies. Unions have consistently blocked efforts to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act, which Clinton’s proposal would require, because labor leaders fear that such a step could start to unravel landmark legislation that has protected workers since it was passed in 1938.

Labor also worries that proposals to expand the use of compensatory time would harm many workers over the long term by eroding the standard 40-hour workweek, enabling companies to require employees to work more hours at peak seasons and fewer hours when times are slow.

The Clinton initiative differs from the Republican “comp time” proposal in that it would give workers more latitude in dictating when they would take their paid time off. It also would provide greater protections against an employer’s possibly coercive use of comp time.

Under the Republican plan, employees would be permitted to accumulate as many as 240 hours of comp time but employers could deny requests to take the time if granting it would be “unduly disruptive” to the company.

The White House, while not mentioning the GOP plan specifically, said that Clinton opposes legislation that “allows for coercion” of workers and “uses phrases like ‘comp-time’ as a cover for giving workers less choice in the workplace.”

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Expansion of the Family and Medical Leave Act would apply to the 67 million Americans--over half of all workers--who are covered by the law. The act allows workers at companies with 50 or more employees to take as many as 12 weeks of unpaid leave for personal illness or a series of other family needs.

A recent study of the act conducted by a bipartisan congressional commission showed that more than 12 million workers have taken advantage of the measure since 1993 and that 40% of all workers think they would need time away from work under the act some time in the next five years.