Wruck E R
St. Patrick Hospital, Missoula, MT.
Health Prog. 1990 Sep;71(7):32-3.
The minimum wage provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) have drawn considerable attention through the years. But the act's overtime provisions have created some major problems yet generated little debate. As it now stands, the act stipulates that employees be paid overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 during a workweek. Certain employers, like hospitals and residential care facilities, have the additional option of paying overtime on the basis of a 14-day period for hours worked in excess of eight hours a day or of 80 hours during a two-week period. Recent amendments to the act have made it increasingly unresponsive to changes in employers' and employees' needs. The act reduces the scheduling flexibility many employers, like hospitals, need. Allowing more exceptions to the act's current provisions would create more flexibility. A workable plan would be to permit organizations open for business seven days a week to calculate overtime on the basis of a straight 80-hour work period. Such a change would not preclude management and labor from negotiating overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 8, 10, 12, or more a day.
《公平劳动标准法》（1938年）中的最低工资条款多年来一直备受关注。但该法案的加班规定却引发了一些重大问题，然而引发的争论却很少。就目前情况而言，该法案规定员工在一周工作时间超过40小时的情况下应获得加班费。某些雇主，如医院和住宿护理机构，还有另外一种选择，即根据14天的周期来支付加班费，前提是一天工作超过8小时或两周内工作超过80小时。该法案最近的修正案使其越来越无法适应雇主和员工需求的变化。该法案降低了许多雇主（如医院）所需的排班灵活性。允许对该法案现行条款有更多例外情况将创造更多灵活性。一个可行的方案是允许每周七天营业的组织按照直接的80小时工作周期来计算加班费。这样的改变并不妨碍管理层和劳工就一天工作超过8、10、12小时或更多小时的加班费进行谈判。
