I mean, if my employer was sending me out to political events to represent my company’s business in my off hours I sure as hell would expect something in return. And I’m not talking about a free Turkey at Thanksgiving, either.
What the heck are you jabbering about now Steven?, you ask. Oh, just this little admission by the health insurance industry that they are sending their employees to Town Hall meetings on health care reform to “counter” all those mean things the commie fascist socialist pinko Democrats are saying about their upstanding and compassionate treatment of the suckers patients who rely upon when a medical crisis hits their family:
A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform. […]
“The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress’s August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player — and not an outsider — in the debate over the future of the health-care system,” the Journal’s Vanessa Fuhrmans and Avery Johnson wrote Monday.
I wonder if all those employees are doing this purely out of the goodness of their hearts and their desire to combat all the “aggressive” healthcare reformers who are defaming the good name and sterling reputations of their employers, or because their Bosses told them not to expect to have a job on Monday if they don’t show proof of attendance at the local Democratic Representative’s Town Hall meeting? Just asking, is all.
No. This would fall under “other duties as specified”
Well, Bush and the GOP changed the overtime rules in 2004 to make it harder for workers to collect overtime. I think “white collar” workers that make over $27K (which is really low for white collar work) can be denied overtime pay. The courts, the GOP, and a business-friendly Dem party have significantly weakened worker protections over the last 20 years (although overtime laws is one area where the Dems stood some ground and fought a little bit).
But, maybe these insurance company workers are burgeoning members of the ownership society and have stock options in their companies–in which case they will be more than compensated for their work. Obama and the Dems will make sure these companies do well. It’s a good time to be working for a health insurer. Some people in this economy are doing well: the insurance companies aren’t suckers.
I doubt very much if such vultures as the Health Insurance companies would pay any of their workers overtime pay. This is just one more gimmie in a long line of gimmies. As stated upthread, there were probably some threats of job loss if the public option goes through.
Such is life in the greatest country in the world.
They’re out there fighting for their companies to save their own jobs. That’s how their participation was probably sold to them by their bosses. Do or die.