A bill to guarantee overtime pay to employee truck drivers had been quiet for several months. However, the bipartisan GOT Truckers Act recently picked up a new co-sponsor.
Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., expressed support for HR6359 on Monday, Sept. 9.
The GOT Truckers Act would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to require that truckers receive overtime compensation when they work more than 40 hours in a week. The exemption was created to prevent truck drivers from being encouraged to work excessive hours. However, the opposite has happened. It is common for truck drivers to work 70 hours in a week while receiving a base pay similar to what someone would make in a 40-hour week.
Although the bill would apply only to company drivers, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association contends that forcing shippers and receivers to value a trucker’s time would create change throughout the industry.
“America’s truckers keep our nation’s economy moving, and without the hard work of these men and women, our supply chain would grind to a halt,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “Unbelievably, trucking is one of the only professions in America that is denied guaranteed overtime pay. We are way past due as a nation in valuing the sacrifices that truckers make every single day. This starts with simply paying truckers for all of the time they work.”
GOT Truckers Act
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., introduced the House version of the bill in November.
“Truckers are an essential component of our nation’s supply chain, and compensating them appropriately is the least we can do to support them,” Van Drew said. “Let’s be fair. Let’s be decent to the hard-working men and women who do this job.”
At the time of introduction, Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., was the lone co-sponsor. It stayed that way until Salinas signed on in recent days.
A Senate version, S3273, was introduced by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., in November. It has five co-sponsors.
To ask your lawmaker to endorse the GOT Truckers Act, go to FightingForTruckers.com for more information. LL
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