To: The Maine State House, The Maine State Senate, and Governor Janet Mills
MDOL Revision of Work Week definition for overtime pay
Presently the MDOL defines a workweek as, "more than 40 hours in any one week unless 1 1/2 times the regular hourly rate is paid for all hours actually worked in excess of 40 hours in that week. The regular hourly rate includes all earnings, bonuses, commissions and other compensation that is paid or due based on actual work performed and does not include any sums excluded from the definition of "regular rate" under the Fair Labor
Standards Act, 29 United States Code, Section 207(e).
This is a Petition to Revise the MDOL language on what a workweek should mean and for employees to qualify for overtime pay. We Petition our Maine Department of Labor to Eliminate the following language: "in any one week". And replace it with: "any consecutive two week period", and Eliminate "in that week", Replace it with, "in that two week period".
Why is this important?
Many employers are overlapping schedules so that one workweek overlaps into a second workweek. Because of present labor laws on over time and what is defined as a workweek, the employer is exempt from paying overtime or from giving a day off to the employees even after they've worked for 40 hours. Many employees are working 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 full time consecutive work days without a day off and with no overtime pay.