Obama's Newest Power Grab: Socialized Workplace Policies
No doubt this is how the Right will spin it. Tell those lowly workers to suck it up, get back to work and be grateful they still have jobs.
Yesterday President Obama directed federal agencies to create more scheduling flexibility for workers so they'll be more able to juggle family needs and workplace obligations. He said:
“The bottom line is [that] 21st-century families deserve 21st-century workplaces. And our economy demands them, because it’s going to help us compete. It’s going to help us lead. And that means paid family leave, especially paid parental leave...There is only one developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave, and that is us.”
A few months ago President Obama referred to workplace policies that belong in a Mad Men episode, not in the 21st century workplace. Yesterday Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan on Mad Men, seconded Obama's Mad Men reference, saying: “In the 21st century the only place for a story like Joan's should be on TV.”
Obama also mentioned a report showing that the U.S. could get more people back to work if more businesses had paid parental leave policies. He said:
“A few states have acted on their own to give workers paid family leave, but this should be available to everyone, because all Americans should be able to afford to care for a family member in need.”
As with everything else that benefits the ninety-nine percent, workplace flexibility will have to be achieved through executive authority, since Congress is still too busy repealing Obamacare and screaming about Benghazi.
Labels: Obama workplace flexibility
posted by Tom Harper @ 4:45 PM
6 Comments:
More flexibility for workers, because it could increase production, is something the GOP would probably like. But as long as Obama recommends it, the GOP will be against it, at least for now.
Just wait until he is out of office... they'll wait a couple of years and allow our nation's short attention span to kick in, and then they will push ideas like this as their own.
Unless there is a Democrat in the White House, of course! LOL
Chamber of Commerce and big business will put the bad juju on this before it even gets out the starting post. It's a really good idea though to get us up into civilized nation status. Will it be funded with my taxes because I am not going to have kids. so why should I pay for someone like Michelle and Bob Duggar to have 20 of the little ankle biters and my taxes pay for them. Oh sorry, I was channeling my Free Republic voice there for a second :)
How is it possible to have 21st Century workplaces when we have 19th Century bosses...in abundance?
Snave: Nah, I think the GOP only wants flexibility for employers. That's their favorite soundbite for dismantling unions and derailing minimum wage laws and workplace safety regulations. "We need to allow maximum flexibility for the Job Creators so they can continue to create jobs and stimulate the economy" yada yada.
Jess: "Civilized nation status" -- you ain't one of them commies, are you :)
jadedj: 19th century bosses -- at least that's one species that's not endangered in any way.
It was GW Bush that tried to push for major labor changes to make almost everybody exempt and therefore on a straight salary.
Congress is itself exempt from many of those labor laws and policies so it can still abuse it's staff as much as it wants to.
Erik
Erik: You're right, it was during Dumbya's reign that millions of workers were designated as "supervisors" (even if they didn't supervise anyone) or "independent contractors" so they wouldn't qualify for overtime pay. And Congress has always been notorious for not following the labor laws they pass for everyone else.
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