ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 25, 1996 TAG: 9606250073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NASHVILLE, TENN.
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Seeking to bolster his credentials as a friend to working families, President Clinton on Monday announced proposals that he said would help workers balance the often-conflicting demands of the workplace and the home.
Clinton's proposals would allow most employees to take time off without pay for routine family activities, such as parent-teacher conferences or visits to the doctor, and to opt for paid time off instead of overtime pay.
By giving workers more control over their dueling obligations, Clinton said, ``I believe this will be a stronger country. I believe we'll have a stronger economy. I know we'll have stronger children and stronger families.''
Under Clinton's two-pronged plan, workers could take up to 24 hours a year without pay to participate in their children's school activities or meet with their teachers, take their children to the doctor or dentist, or help elderly relatives obtain health or nursing-home care.
The second part of the plan would allow workers who prefer time off to overtime pay to accumulate up to 80 hours in ``flex-time'' - 90 minutes for every 60 minutes worked - which they could use for any reason by giving employers two weeks' notice.
Clinton said that Americans - whom he described as ``working fools,'' not disparagingly, but because of the hours they put in - have to change the culture of the workplace so that parents can tend to their jobs and make ends meet without ignoring their children.
``This is a working country. But you have to be able to create a strong and secure family,'' Clinton told workers and business leaders who participated in a ``Family Reunion'' conference here headed by Vice President Al Gore and Gore's wife, Tipper. He described the workplace proposals as part of a framework of activities designed to help families, including legislation that placed more police officers on the streets, a presidential attack on teen-age smoking and his efforts to let parents control their children's access to television violence.
Clinton announced his proposals just days after Republican women in Congress revealed a workers' plan of their own and weeks after GOP men proposed something similar, setting the stage for an election-year battle over which party is more supportive of families and children.
The president's proposal calls for Congress to amend two existing laws. The flex-time proposal would be inserted in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which provides for overtime pay and covers at least 65 million workers, according to the White House. The 24 hours of unpaid leave would be included in the Family and Medical Leave Act, which Clinton signed shortly after taking office in 1993. Clinton billed his latest proposals as ``Family Leave II'' after the popular existing act.
That law, which was widely opposed by business organizations, allows workers at companies with 50 or more employees to take up to 12 weeks a year of unpaid leave to care for an infant or newly adopted child or for seriously ill relatives. A recent bipartisan study showed that opponents' predictions that the bill would damage business and cost jobs were mostly unfounded.
Still, a spokesman for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Monday he was wary of Clinton's latest proposals because, he said, they cede too much control over workers' time to the workers themselves.
``The problem when you give the employee the ability to call all the shots is that there are so many employees with imprecise work ethics - they have the opportunity to screw up the workplace drill,'' said Jeff Joseph, the chamber's vice president for domestic policy.
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