ASHCROFT PLAN IS PRO-WORKER, PRO-FAMILY

Workers, especially parents of young children and adults with elderly parents for whom to care, often get caught in a tug of war between financial and family demands. It is therefore good to see U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft moving to try to give workers some breathing room. Ashcroft has introduced legislation to overhaul our 1930s-era labor laws to allow flexible scheduling in the work place for the nation's 80 million non-supervisory workers.

The bill would give workers flexible paid leave, with the agreement of their employer. Employees could bank up to 50 hours of flexible leave a year. Employees and employers could set two-week schedules totaling 80 hours in any combination rather than be limited by the 40-hour work week. Workers could take time off instead of overtime pay, up to 240 hours a year. The employer would have to approve the specific time off requested and could refuse if it would significantly disrupt the operation of the business. Employers could cash in the comp time.

Federal workers have enjoyed these rights since 1978. Ashcroft seeks to extend these same rules to the private sector. The opposition of Big Labor notwithstanding, this appears to be one of the most pro-worker and pro-family measures to be debated in years.