Should you agree to overtime exmption?
Things to consider before you sign up
Posted: August 12, 2011

The Free Press and the News have embarked on a new overtime/comp time policy that will directly impact many editorial employees working in the Guild jurisdiction.

Until now, staffers who accumulated large amounts of overtime could, at their option, take compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay. Some employees who have assignments that require extensive overtime work, such as sports beats, could schedule the appropriate compensatory time off weeks or months after the assignment ended. That option is ending.

The Company, citing accounting concerns and compliance with federal wage and hour laws, states that it must now require that overtime must be paid or comp time taken within the bi-weekly payroll payroll period.  Also, as part of that change, the Company will be contacting some employees, asking them if they want to be exempt from the overtime/comp time provisions in the Guild contract.

Guild contracts have language that allow for this exemption. The pertinent News and Free Press clauses permit certain editorial employees to voluntarily agree to be exempt from overtime pay:

“Reporters, columnists and cartoonists and assistant editors (Free Press only) who qualify as professionals within the meaning of Federal wage and hour laws, may, at their option, apply annually to be salaried and exempt from overtime. Any such employee so applying may be offered a salary. The salary offered will take into consideration the overtime, if any, that the employee has worked in the past and is anticipated to work in the future. An employee who accepts such offer shall, for the calendar year, be exempt from the requirement of overtime. At the conclusion of the calendar year, the employee may opt to be re-classified as non-exempt with appropriate adjustment in salary and prerequisites.”

Under this language, if an employee agrees to a higher salary in lieu of overtime, he or she would be barred from filing for overtime for at least one calendar year. After one year, the employee would have the option of returning to eligibility for overtime pay at the previous weekly salary.

What are the drawbacks? For starters, you could be subject to a significant amount of overtime work that far exceeds the amount of compensation in your adjusted salary. Supervisors would have an incentive to assign overtime work to you, knowing they do not have to pay overtime. You could wind up working significantly more hours than what you originally envisioned in waiving your overtime eligibility.

Keep in mind also that if you are exempt from overtime pay, you are not entitled to comp time, no matter how many hours you work. Comp time is something offered in lieu of overtime pay. When overtime pay goes, so does comp time.
 
Given recent history, the Guild is skeptical that the Company will be generous in boosting your current wage as an enticement to waive your overtime rights. The fact that this provision has been in both editorial contracts for a number of years and no one has volunteered for this exemption gives you some indication that employees are very reluctant to waive their right to overtime compensation.

The Company would be better served, as would employees and newspaper subscribers, if it added more staff to cover the overtime work that is required nearly every day. Or, the Company should staff sufficiently to allow all comp time to be taken within the two-week payroll period.  But as we’ve all experienced in recent years, the staff size has been steadily reduced in all departments.

Feel free to call the Guild office with any questions, at 313-963-4254.