Engineering Inc. - March/April 2003 - 30

R00E3FORM 2 By Dana Wilkie Potential regulatory activity 1 9 3 0 s ,
raising the minimum wage from 25 cents to 40 cents an hour and limiting
working could impact the way hours to 45 a week. Today, the act is a
substantive part of pub- l i c - s a f e t y regulation that is
engineering firms do business. designed to protect workers on the job. The
Act has come under c r i t i c i s m over the last several Four years ago
shortly after dawn near Penn State y e a r s , however, for failing to
University a motorist on Highway 322 fell asleep k e e p pace with today's
work- place. This has led to calls from at the wheel, veered into oncoming
traffic, struck a m a n y people in the business car head on and killed
its driver. c o m m u n i t y to modernize the Act. The A/E industry in
partic- What happened after that was, d e n c e potentially absolving i n
Washington this year. The ular is advocating for changes to as far as
Arthur T. Tom Nielsen them of liability earlier in court g o a l : to
improve the business ensure that engineering profes- i s concerned, also
tragic: The proceedings. environment engineering com- sionals are exempt
from the Act's man's widow sued Nielsen's engi- T h i s costs the
engineering panies operate in, thus allowing w a g e and overtime require-
neering firm, Erdman Anthony industry and all businesses a t h e m to
increase profits and m e n t s c h a n g e s that are in & Associates
Inc., on the h u g e sum every year,'' says productivity. keeping with the
intent of the g r o u n d s that flaws in the Nielsen, an executive vice
presi- original law. FLSA Reform guardrail separating the highway dent at
his firm and a member of The Bush administration is c o n t r i b u t e d
to her husband's A C E C 's Risk Management B e s i d e s curtailing the
large also looking to modernize the d e a t h . About a year ago, the
Committee. If we could have n u m b e r of anti-business law- Act.
Specifically, businesses want company settled the case to avoid s h ow n
the court immediately suits, the Bush administration the U.S. Department
of Labor the expense of going to trial. that there was no design error, we
h o p e s to make regulatory t o rewrite the portion of the Nielsen tells
this story to illus- could have gotten a dismissal. c h a n g e s that
would exempt FSLA that defines white-collar t r a t e why he and ACEC are
Reforms to tort law, the tax more engineers and design pro- w o r k e r s
. As the regulation is working with Congress and the code and the Fair
Labor Stan- fessionals from overtime pay. currently written, a
white-collar White House to allow compa- dards Act FLSA are among the C o
n g r e s s passed the Fair w o r k e r is anyone who is 1 n i e s like
his to introduce evi- efforts being pursued by ACEC L a b o r Standards
Act in the salaried and 2 performs certain l April 2003 3 0 E N G I N E E
R I N G INC. M a r c h
Engineering Inc. - March/April 2003

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