By Tom LoBianco
With jobs and economic relief at the top of most political agendas this year, state lawmakers are again pushing for legislation that would mandate work breaks for employees.
The bill, currently being drafted, is expected to be similar to last year’s measure, which called for mandatory breaks for workers who log four or more consecutive hours.
“We’ve heard enough from folks, that it does need to be addressed,” said House Economic Matters Committee Chairman Dereck Davis, who plans to file the measure soon.
“We want to do something that is not too onerous on business, but by the same token ensure that our workers have certain basic rights in the workplace,” said Davis, a Prince George’s County Democrat.
Last year’s proposal mandated that employees be given a 15-minute break for working at least four consecutive hours, and a 30-minute break for working more than six consecutive hours.
The measure included a number of waivers and exemptions, however, for workers in medical and law enforcement fields.
Davis expects that this year’s bill would apply only to businesses with 50 or more workers.
Senate President Thomas V. “Mike” Miller Jr. said last week he has not staked a position on the issue yet, but hopes that private industry would be able to find a satisfactory resolution without government stepping in.
Business groups have largely aligned against the measure, saying something of such breadth cannot be properly crafted across the many different industries and job-types which would be affected.
“We just don’t think that a one-size-fits-all mandate on how employers and employees handle their business will work,” said Allyson Black, vice president of government affairs for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.
Davis said he is looking to pare back some of the items which frightened business the most during last year’s debate, including a provision that would have allowed violations of the law to be tried in Circuit Court.
“We would want to discourage that sort of thing,” Davis said. “But at the same time you have to have some sort of penalties.”
The bill died in Davis’s House committee last year by a one-vote margin, and the Senate version was thrown in the drawer and never considered for a vote.
Labor groups and progressive activists who have largely supported the measure in the past could not be reached for this article, although Progressive Maryland chided the General Assembly in its 2009 legislative wrap-up:
“Who could oppose such a common-sense bill? The Maryland General Assembly, that’s who. The bill did not even make it out of the House Committee which passed this bill last year [in 2008]!”
House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell said he’s worked many jobs where it would be wrong for him to take a break, and would not want to be forced by law to stop work.
“I think it’s overstepping of government into private industry,” he said.
Click here to read the 2009 version of the legislation.
Read more articles and political observations from Tom LoBianco here.
