DAILY-OVERTIME BILL GOES TO GOVERNOR.

Byline: Jon Matthews Scripps-McClatchy Western Service

In a move to change the pay rules governing millions of California workers, the state Legislature on Thursday sent Gov. Gray Davis a bill to require payment of overtime after an eight-hour workday rather than after a 40-hour week.

Democrat Davis, who made the union-backed change a top campaign priority, is now expected to sign the daily overtime measure into law.

``This is the bill that the governor will sign,'' said Assemblyman Wally Knox, the Los Angeles Democrat who authored the measure. ``This is a bill that is carefully crafted to be an eight-hour-day law for the 21st century.''

But many business groups and Republican legislators sharply disagreed, predicting that legions of employees and employers will soon be hurt by drastically reduced flex-time in their work shifts.

``This is an attack by big labor unions on the flexibility in the workplace now enjoyed by the great majority of hard-working Californians,'' declared Assemblyman Bob Margett, R-Arcadia.

Davis spokesman Michael Bustamante said the bill addresses those concerns.

``The governor worked to ensure that the bill is a balanced approach that would satisfy the concerns of both business and working people. That was accomplished,'' Bustamante said.

The Knox bill, AB 60, could affect up to an estimated 8 million people, largely nonunion workers who aren't governed by existing labor contracts, according to its supporters.

With mostly Democratic backing, the measure passed the state Senate on a 23-15 vote and, after a lengthy debate, was given final approval by the Assembly on a vote of 47-27.

The bill is aimed at reversing 1998 orders by appointees of former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson on the state Industrial Welfare Commission. Bitterly contested by labor forces who backed Davis for governor, the orders struck down then-longstanding daily overtime rules and let California join at least 47 other states in following the federal government's 40-hour overtime standard.

If signed by Davis, the Knox bill generally would restore the payment of daily overtime, at a rate of 1-1/2 times regular pay, after eight hours of daily work. Double pay would be required after 12 hours of daily work and after eight hours of work on the seventh day of any workweek, according to Senate staff.

But the bill, which was subject to months of negotiations between legislators, Davis, labor and business groups, also contains lots of fine print spelling out a variety of exceptions and conditions to the daily overtime standard.

They include provisions to allow many workers to continue a four-day, 10-hour schedule without being paid overtime, to allow employees to work up to 11 hours in one day without triggering daily overtime in order to make up for personal time off in the same workweek, and to let an individual firm's employees approve an alternative work schedule by a two-thirds secret-ballot vote.

The bill contains exemptions, at least until July 2000, for some commercial fishing, horse racing, ski industry and hospital employees, and provisions to exempt many administrators, executives and professionals. Also, supporters said the state Industrial Welfare Commission could adopt new daily overtime regulations for certain industries.

The bill also would not extend the eight-hour day to long-exempt agricultural employees.

In the Senate and Assembly debates, supporters called daily overtime a matter of basic fairness to both part-time and full-time workers who can now be required to work long daily shifts without extra compensation. The lawmakers said daily overtime, sometimes amounting to just a few dollars, can mean the difference between buying or not buying new shoes for a low-wage worker's child.

``I spent years working for an hourly wage, being paid overtime pay when I worked overtime hours. It's how I paid my rent. It's how a lot of parents buy clothes for their kids,'' Knox said.