Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) today announced that this Thursday he will introduce legislation to establish a standard 32-hour workweek in America with no loss in pay – an important step toward ensuring that workers share in the massive increase in productivity driven by artificial intelligence, automation, and new technology. Sanders is joined on the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act in the Senate by Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) and in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) who introduced companion legislation.
Read the bill summary, here. [PDF]
Read the bill text, here. [PDF]
The Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act would:
- Reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours over four years by lowering the maximum hours threshold for overtime compensation for non-exempt employees.
- Require overtime pay at time and a half for workdays longer than eight hours, and overtime pay at double a worker’s regular pay for workdays longer than 12 hours.
- Protect workers’ pay and benefits to ensure that a reduction in the workweek does not cause a loss in pay.
https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/1be2bg5/bernie_is_fighting_for_the_4day_workweek_in_the/
Of al the criticisms one can have of Sanders, this one really annoys me. Offcourse he “doesn’t get annything done”, because all other people there are the worst monsters imaginable, who’re only trying to get tax cuts for their donors. That’s a criticism of them, not of Sanders. The problem is that there is no broader movement agitating around these sort of bills, not that they’re voted down. These bills are a meager form of pressure on the elite, their existence is a net positive.
You dont have to hand anything to Bernie. All criticism is valid, cuz he still cant even do the bare minimum of not waffling on issues like Yugoslavia or Palestine. But I guess not batting 100 in the Imperial Senate is what it takes to keep your seat