On Tuesday, February 10, 2009, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) reintroduced the Family-Friendly Workplace Act (H.R. 933), a bill that would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to permit private-sector employees to chose compensatory leave in lieu of cash wages for overtime hours worked. This “comp time” option has long been available to public sector employees, and has proven to be very popular.

Under the terms of this legislation, the comp time option would always be at the employee’s discretion. An employee who elects comp time would receive paid time off at a rate of one-and-one-half hours of compensatory time per hour of overtime pay earned. By way of example, an employee who works 48 hours per week would receive either 8 hours of pay at a rate of time-and-one-half or 12 hours of paid leave. This act would not change how overtime is calculated. Employees would be able to accrue up to 160 hours of comp time per year, and employers would be required to cash out any accrued, unused comp time at the end of the year.

The bill also mandates that employers and employees enter into written agreements regarding the option for comp time, and stipulates that where collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) are in place, the offer of comp time must be negotiated and included in the CBA.

This bill was introduced in May 2008, but died in committee. Given the makeup of the 111th Congress and President Obama’s stated intentions to improve workplace flexibility, this bill has a somewhat greater chance of progressing this time around.