Supervisor Lobbies to Curb Wage Law

WASHINGTON —  Supervisor Leon Williams Wednesday wound up a whirlwind mission to Capitol Hill in search of a congressional remedy to a court ruling on overtime wages that already threatens to cost San Diego County $20 million--and perhaps millions more in the future.

Williams visited 24 senators, congressmen or their top aides in three hectic days, spreading the word that a potential “catastrophe” lurks for virtually every state and local government if the law is not amended.

“This is not what Congress intended,” Williams said. “This will be devastating to the county--and other governments--if we cannot rectify this interpretation by the courts.”

The decision centers on public employees who were considered exempt from overtime pay, but whose wages can be docked if they miss a few hours of work. They include accountants, engineers, probation officers, child welfare workers, fire captains and others.

Public agencies generally have classified these workers as “salaried” employees, and, as such, they have not received time-and-a-half pay for working overtime, usually defined as more than 40 hours a week.

But the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in July, 1990, ruled that such employees actually are “hourly” workers, not salaried, simply because their pay could be docked for absences.

The court’s jurisdiction includes California, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Rather than consider the workers’ professional or managerial duties--the usual way of determining whether a worker receives a salary or hourly wage--the court chose to focus solely on the rules that governed how they were paid.

Many public employers have personnel policies that prohibit paying employees who don’t show up for work. And the court chose to interpret such policies as evidence of workers’ hourly status, even though they covered exempt workers as well.

The court said only doctors, lawyers and elected officials are exempt from the overtime rule.

The Supreme Court let the ruling stand in January, 1991, opening the door to a number of lawsuits seeking millions in back overtime pay.

In San Diego County, supervisors estimate lawsuits from employee groups--the largest being 770 plaintiffs of the Service Employee International Union--leave the county exposed to $19.8 million in judgments. An the potential for more lawsuits is great, Williams said.

The city of San Diego has also been sued.

“These suits are shortsighted, and the (plaintiffs) are being greedy,” said Williams during a noontime respite before making the rounds of several more congressmen’s offices.

“The county is essentially destitute. It had to shut down a mental hospital, limit infant immunizations and not open a jail just to balance its budget. These suits could be catastrophic,” Williams said. Officials for the employee union could not be reached for comment.

The National Assn. of Counties, based in Washington, is working with Williams on the issue.

“We think it’s possible that Congress can pass a legislative remedy, but it’s not going to be easy,” said Larry Jones, associate legislative director for the association. “This could very easily become the biggest problem we have to face.”

The court ruling was based on 1987 amendments to the Fair Labor Standards Act, first passed in 1938.

Lobbyists for local governments thought they had succeeded in blunting the effect of the ruling when the Labor Department issued new regulations last year clarifying the language of the law.

But lawyers for Service Employees International Union in San Diego successfully challenged the regulations on procedural grounds, and they were thrown out.

The current effort in Washington is aimed at codifying the corrective Labor Department regulations and making them retroactive.

But Williams and his allies don’t care what form the remedy takes.

“This has got to be fixed,” Williams said, “I don’t care how.”