Employment Rights Committee Charts Strategy on Overtime Expansion

Employment Law, Inclusion and Diversity

At this week's meeting of our Employment Rights Committee, House Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) pledged to continue his efforts to modernize the wage and hour laws and "push back" on the Administration's minimum wage increase and other initiatives.  Chaired by Johnna Torsone, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Pitney Bowes Inc., the meeting brought together two dozen senior labor and employment experts from member companies across a range of industries, all of which would be heavily impacted by the employment policies currently under discussion in Washington.  The committee spent most of the day considering how the administration's efforts to increase the number of individuals covered by overtime could be expanded into a broader overhaul of the regulations.  EEOC Chair Jacqueline A. Berrien and Commissioner Victoria Lipnic reviewed their agency's agenda while also discussing their views on criminal background checks and the OFCCP's disability affirmative action regulations.  On the latter, they were pressed by members of the Committee to ensure that, when an employer is sued for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by asking applicants OFCCP-required questions about their disability status, the administration will weigh in on the employers' side expressing the EEOC view that this is not a violation.  The commissioners listened sympathetically but made no commitments.