8-HOUR RULE DIES IN STATE : SHORT SHIFT COULD OFFSET LENGTHY ONE.

Byline: Ron Harris Associated Press 

Amid shouts of protest, a state commission agreed Friday to eliminate overtime pay for nonunion workers after an eight-hour work day, a move that infuriated labor leaders.

The Industrial Welfare Commission, a five-member board appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, voted 3-2 to implement the rule that would only authorize overtime pay for work in excess of 40 hours per week.

Proponents of the rule believe it will add flexibility to work schedules.

``It's a win for all employees in the state,'' said Thomas Luevano of the California Healthcare Association. ``We're not going to see rampant abuse by employers.''

But labor leaders said the decision will lead to overworked and underpaid employees.

``We know that the record is closed, but we pray your minds are still open,'' said Richard Holober of the California Labor Federation. Holober addressed the commission from a podium in a last-minute appeal to sway a vote change.

``If you increase the length of the workday, you damage the workers' well-being,'' Holober said.

Outside the public meeting, more than 200 workers protested the expected outcome. Construction workers in hard hats from a nearby work site chanted and waved signs reading ``Save the eight-hour work day'' and ``Gov. Wilson: Hands off my overtime pay.''

Protesters then held a mock funeral for the demise of the eight-hour workday pay structure - a major source of overtime income for nonunion workers.

``We are trying to give Pete Wilson a message that we would like the eight-hour day,'' said Gabe DeSmidt, a union worker at the Moscone Convention Center.

Inside the state building, the commission's chairwoman, Robyn Black, was shouted down repeatedly by voices of dissent.

Art Pulaski of the California Labor Federation also opposed the passage of the rule and gave an impassioned speech denouncing the vote. Workers will ``have to choose between their families and their jobs,'' he said.

``They are merely doing the bidding as appointees of Pete Wilson,'' said Pulaski of the bipartisan commission.

California Highway Patrol officers, serving as a security force, removed three people for disrupting the proceedings during the vote count. Officers lifted them off the ground and led them out amid the chants and taunts of protesters.

The new rule is subject to a 60-day public notice before it can be implemented. If the commission completes required legal paperwork by April 30, the rule will take effect July 1. If the paperwork is finished after April 30, the rule change will not take effect until Jan. 1, 1998.

A study released last month found that state workers will benefit from the elimination of California's daily overtime law. The law will lead to more overtime and higher earnings, said the study by Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

``It's like changing something that's been around for 100 years. You don't do it with just five people,'' said Kevin VanBuskirk, an organizer for Local 104 Sheetmetal Workers' Union in San Francisco.

``I feel that's a sham and that's not good government,'' VanBuskirk said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1) Union activists disrupt a meeting of the Industrial Welfare Commission that voted Friday to abolish the traditional eight-hour workday.

(2) Construction workers chant and wave signs protesting the end of the eight-hour-day pay structure for nonunion employees.

Associated Press