HOUSE BILL ANALYSIS

                     SB 6220

Brief Description:  Allowing airline employees to trade shifts without overtime pay.

Sponsors:  Senators Horn, Heavey, Schow, Fraser, Anderson, Franklin, Newhouse, Winsley and        Patterson.

                  Hearing:  February 18, 1998

BACKGROUND:

Federal and state laws establish minimum compensation for an employee who works longer than forty hours per week.

The overtime provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) require an employer to pay an employee who works longer than forty hours in a week at a rate of not less than one and one-half times the regular rate at which the employee is employed. An employee of an air carrier that is subject to the provisions of the federal Railway Labor Act is exempt from the federal overtime law.

The overtime provision of the state Minimum Wage Act requires an employer to pay an employee one and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay for any hours worked in excess of forty hours in a single work week.  The law exempts several categories of employment, but does not refer to employees of an air carrier.

SUMMARY OF BILL:

The overtime provisions of the state Minimum Wage Act do not apply to employees of air carriers if the employees work according to a shift trading practice under which they have the opportunity of voluntarily offering a shift for trade or reassignment.

RULES AUTHORITY:  The bill does not contain provisions addressing the rule making powers of an agency.

FISCAL NOTE:  Not requested.

EFFECTIVE DATE:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.