Legislators face long odds in drive to repeal benefits laws. (Politics).With California's economy on the rocks, business groups and Republican leaders are mounting a full-court press full-court press n. 1. Basketball An aggressive defensive strategy in which one or two players harass the ball handler in the backcourt while the rest of the team maintains a close man-to-man or zone defense. 2. to repeal some of the legislation they consider most onerous to the private sector. The California Chamber of Commerce and state Sen. Charles Poochigian, R-Fresno, introduced a measure last month to repeal recently enacted increases in workers' compensation workers' compensation, payment by employers for some part of the cost of injuries, or in some cases of occupational diseases, received by employees in the course of their work. benefits and a new paid family leave program. But with the special session .on the current-year budget winding down, that bill remains stalled in committee. Now the Assembly Republican caucus has introduced another bill that would repeal the mandatory daily overtime payment requirement that was reinstated back when Gov. Gray Davis took office in 1999. But this measure, being carried by Assemblymen Bill Maze Bill Maze was first elected in November 2002 to represent California's 34th Assembly District, which includes Tulare County, Inyo County, Kern County, and San Bernardino County. He is a Republican. , R-Visalia, and Greg Aghazarian Greg Aghazarian is a Republican who has represented California's 26th Assembly District since December of 2002. Prior to his election, Aghazarian was a local businessman and attorney, working for his family’s business, Aghazarian’s of Stockton, which has been in , R-Stockton, faces even longer odds. Some history: California had a law requiring employers to pay workers overtime ("time-and-a-half") for every hour beyond eight hours worked in a day. In 1996, the Pete Wilson For others named Pete Wilson, see . Peter Barton Wilson (born August 23, 1933) is an American Republican politician from California. Wilson served as the thirty-sixth Governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that administration, with help from the Republican-dominated Assembly, changed the law so that overtime only kicked in if someone worked more than 40 hours in a week. The move incensed organized labor Organized Labor An association of workers united as a single, representative entity for the purpose of improving the workers' economic status and working conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Also known as "unions". , which used it as a mobilizing tool to get Davis elected in 1998. One of his first actions upon taking office was to push legislation reinstating daily overtime. Now, Maze and Aghazarian must steer their bill through liberal Democrat-dominated committees. Even on the slim chance Noun 1. slim chance - little or no chance of success fat chance probability, chance - a measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible; "the probability that an their bill gets through, they can't count on any help from Davis, who touted his signing of the daily overtime bill in his inaugural address last month. But that isn't stopping the two assemblymen. "In his State of the State speech, Gov. Davis said he had one priority: jobs, jobs and more jobs," Maze said. "The Governor has to step back and realize that daily overtime is one of the things that is prompting businesses to leave the state and take jobs with them." Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227, or by email at hfine@labusinessjournal.com |
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