Laura Leslie from WUNC’s Isaac Hunter’s Tavern brings up the same question I had about the N&O’s story about state employee comp time: when did it become a perk to be paid for your work?
Says Leslie:
… comp time is mostly given in lieu of overtime to employees who aren’t eligible for the latter. And one reason employees are earning so much of it is because staffing in many departments is thinner than it’s been for years. When there’s more work to do and fewer people to do it, employees end up working extra hours to complete what needs to be done. Last time I checked federal labor laws, a one-to-one trade for overtime worked is not a “perk.”
Seems like a big hole in the N&O’s argument and one that should’ve been considered before running the story.