Subject: POLITICO's Morning Shift: Labor Department to lower proposed overtime threshold — Dems stick with administration on fiduciary rule — Hirozawa reapppointed to NLRB
From: Morning Shift <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2016 08:02:55 -0600

By Brian Mahoney and Marianne LeVine | 04/29/2016 10:00 AM EDT

NEW OVERTIME THRESHOLD: $47,000?: The Labor Department will lower the salary threshold in its forthcoming final rule to extend overtime coverage, Morning Shift has learned. The new threshold under consideration is $47,000, according to sources familiar with the Labor Department's deliberations.

The overtime salary threshold determines the level below which virtually all salaried employees qualify for time-and-a-half pay if they work more than 40 hours in any given week. The threshold was $50,440 in the rule as proposed in July. A $47,000 threshold would be almost exactly double the current threshold, which lies below the poverty line for a family of four. The final rule is expected in mid-May.

The Labor Department calculated that the overtime rule, as proposed, would extend coverage to nearly five million people, of whom 1.2 million would receive a wage hike, with the rest getting a reduction in hours worked. The Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, put the number of affected workers at more like 13.5 million. Lowering the rule's threshold to $47,000, EPI calculates, would reduce the number of affected workers to 12.5 million, or 23 percent of the salaried workforce.

The labor movement won't be pleased with the lower threshold, but it can live with it, two high-ranking labor sources told Morning Shift. "The overtime rule is important for working people," an official at a major national labor union said, "and the rumored threshold would be acceptable." Pros can read more here from POLITICO's Marianne LeVine and Brian Mahoney: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d984a638ec281a161fb8e462010badafd17e9c6b8a44582155e

GOOD MORNING. It's Friday, April 29, and this is Morning Shift, POLITICO's daily tipsheet on labor and employment policy. Send tips, exclusives, and corrections to [email-masked], [email-masked], and [email-masked]. Follow us on Twitter at @politicomahoney, @timothyNoah1, and @marianne_levine. 

DEMS STICK WITH ADMINISTRATION ON FIDUCIARY RULE:  House Democrats on Thursday stuck with the Obama administration and voted against a resolution to block the Labor Department's final fiduciary rule. The House approved the resolution 234-183; now it will advance to the Senate. Even if the Senate approves it, as seems likely, the White House has already said the president will veto it. 

CWA SAYS T-MOBILE STARTED ITS OWN COMPANY UNION: The Communications Workers of America has been trying for years to organize T-Mobile workers, so far with little success. One obstacle, CWA says, is "T-Voice," which is "composed of employee 'representatives' from each call center, selected every six months by the company," Bloomberg Businessweek's Josh Eidelson writes. "T-Voice is your voice," a company official told workers in an emai. 

CWA says T-Voice is a company union. That would make it illegal under the National Labor Relations Act. CWA has filed a charge with the NLRB over the alleged sham union. "CWA alleges that in anti-union meetings employees are required to attend, managers are citing the existence of T-Voice as a reason workers don't need a union," Eidelson reports. http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d983f55766a7822c78ee4fd7d34021836f5562bac16755512a8

$15 LOOKS LIKELY IN BALTIMORE: Tuesday's Democratic Party primary in Baltimore made it more likely that the city will pass a $15 minimum wage bill early next year, In These Times' Bruce Vail reports. The winner of the mayoral primary, Catherine Pugh, supports $15, and is almost assured to helm the city come November. She'll replace Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who advocates say has shown reluctance to support the bill. More from In These Times' Bruce Vail: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d98d41486ab5aee690a1ecf5114fbf8df335fcd73572e8bc00d

OBAMA RE-NOMINATES HIROZAWA TO NLRB: President Barack Obama reappointed Democrat Kent Hirozawa to the National Labor Relations Board. Hirozawa's name was sent to the Senate today, according to a White House release. His current term expires in August.

Obama has yet to nominate a successor for the seat left vacant last year by the departure of Republican Harry Johnson. Republican leaders recommended former Jones Day partner G. Roger King, but Obama declined the appointment, presumably because King served as counsel opposing the administration in the Supreme Court case Noel Canning v. NLRB. Don't hold your breath for Republican leaders to act on Hirozawa's nomination.

NYT ACCUSED OF BIAS: Two advertising employees at the New York Times filed suit Thursday accusing company CEO Marc Thompson and Chief Revenue Officer Meredith Levien of age, race and sex discrimination. The staffers say that, after Thompson took the helm, "older advertising directors of color found themselves pushed out through buyouts, or outright terminated, but those vacancies were rapidly filled with younger, white individuals," according to the lawsuit, first reported by the Guardian's Rupert Neate. 

"They claim they were repeatedly passed over for promotion by younger white employees despite their greater experience," Neate adds. "They also claim that 'younger white individuals' at the same level as them are paid far more than they are. In addition, they claim they were 'denied the opportunities to earn as much as [their] younger white peers because of [their] race and/or gender.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d98b66435d7ff4c46aba1bcafc662793ebebaeea874137d15bb

The Times denied the allegations in a statement to the Guardian and said it would fight the lawsuit. 

Full complaint here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d9806f411fe3febcc70a01b9d015370176d1e9f3f39303a052e

VERIZON OFFERS "FINAL CONTRACT" PROPOSAL: Verizon Communications Inc. offered a "final contract proposal" to CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Malathi Nayak reports for Reuters. "The company said on Thursday it would now offer a wage increase of 7.5 percent from its previous offer of a 6.5 percent raise over the term of the contract." CWA doesn't seem impressed. In a statement, Dennis Trainor, vice president of CWA District One, and Ed Mooney, vice president, CWA District 2-13 said "executives refused to back off of callous proposals that would hurt working families and destroy middle class jobs, including shipping jobs overseas and outsourcing work." 
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d984f71464188472f907d6a83570b363d4bf64acf68ff5ecef0

ICYMI: ALABAMA FACES LAWSUIT OVER PREEMPTION BILL: The NAACP filed a lawsuit Thursday against Alabama Gov. Robert J. Bentley alleging that legislation nullifying an increase to Birmingham's minimum wage was unconstitutional.

Last August, the Birmingham City Council passed an ordinance to raise the city's minimum wage to $10.10 by July 2017, up from the current $7.25. But the Alabama state legislature passed a bill that nullified the ordinance and pre-empted localities from raising the minimum wage on their own.

The lawsuit alleges that the bill violated the constitution's equal protection clause because the legislation "disproportionately impacts African American residents who live and work in the City of Birmingham."

RYAN SINGLES OUT LABOR AGENCIES: House Speaker Paul Ryan singled out the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board Thursday in a press conference in which he complained about the Obama administration's rollout of regulations. "The policies that have been pursued by this administration, specifically these regulatory policies - fiduciary rule, overtime rule, joint employer - ... these are compromising business, and so we have to break this logjam with a cleansing clearing election that will give us the ability to actually pass the things that need to get done." Full video here: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d98c8d16b47e7ab0d41f297aa112226e7e4289da352dc897a96

COFFEE BREAK 

- "Teamster pension advocate sees 'hints' that Central States cuts will be rejected," from Kansas City Star: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d9870d54f4330d9c89aae6bb5dc87e13cf2690db3da17f35991

- Donald Trump makes Carrier enemy number one, from the Wall Street Journal: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d985f144c5bd60281309d1e39f9489c4a7fcc1913efa7d19e32

- "Uber Says Tips Are Bad for Black People. But What About Ratings Bias?," from Bloomberg: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d98f5c3183a098ca371105e5b6e8c439c84f4ba033f9ee6d8d4

- "Mondelez sees 'one-time costs' on labor front; union pushes Mexico boycott," from the Chicago Tribune: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d98421af70a123307060b38fd14dff7f72e8f5f843ec7a8deb5

- "Adjunct faculty at Boston University reach tentative contract settlement," from Boston.com: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=b6598d84ddb86d9873163e3c0bd9a5a19d31120d2b4cdf532af2c6a60d3cf885

THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT. 

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