Tag Archives: employees

Colorado school district votes to allow employees to carry guns

A selection of Glock pistols are seen for sale at the Pony Express Firearms shop in Parker, Colorado

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – A tiny school district in central Colorado has voted to allow teachers or other employees at its two schools to carry concealed handguns on the job if they volunteer to serve double duty as security officers in case of an emergency.

The Board of Education for Hanover School District #28 voted 3-2 to approve the resolution on Wednesday night, said Mark McPherson, board president.

McPherson, who voted against the plan, said it was inspired less by the fear of a shooting rampage on campus than by the district’s remote location, some 30 miles from the nearest sheriff’s station.

“We had a board member who introduced the idea back in June who indicated he felt the need for this because of the distance and response time (from law enforcement) as well as all the (potential) trouble from marijuana grows,” McPherson said.

The written resolution, however, says in part that it was drafted “in light of recent events nationally,” apparently in reference to a string of shootings on school campuses.

McPherson said it was a coincidence that the measure was approved on the third anniversary of a Dec. 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 students and six staff members were slain.

Hanover School District #28 is comprised of one elementary school and one combined junior and senior high school, serving a total of about 245 students. Each school has about 10 teachers.

According to the resolution, any teacher or staff member with a permit to carry a concealed weapon can volunteer for extra duty as a security officer.

The employee must then complete training before being allowed to bring the gun to campus.

McPherson said that it was not yet clear how many of the 20 or so teachers in the district would sign up to be volunteer security officers but that the resolution did not set a limit on how many could carry weapons.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler)

U.S. extends overtime pay to 4.2 million salaried workers

Employees work at the checkout counters of a Walmart store in Secaucus, New Jersey, November 11, 2015.

By Daniel Wiessner

(Reuters) – The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled the final version of a long-awaited and controversial rule to extend overtime pay to 4.2 million U.S. workers, which marks one of the administration’s most significant moves to address stagnant wages.

The rule, which has drawn intense criticism from business groups and Republicans, doubles the maximum annual income a salaried worker can earn and still be automatically eligible for overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476 and requires that threshold to be updated every three years. It takes effect Dec. 1.

Officials said many workers will earn more money, an estimated total of $12 billion over the next decade, while others will work fewer hours for the same pay.

“More than 4 million workers are either going to be paid more or get time back to raise their family, go to school … or retrain to get a better job,” Vice President Joe Biden said during a phone call with reporters on Tuesday.

The rule will likely touch nearly every sector of the U.S. economy but is expected to have the greatest impact on nonprofit groups, retail companies, hotels and restaurants, which have many management workers whose salaries are below the new threshold.

Business groups, which lobbied heavily against the changes, say companies will be forced to cut wages and hours and may slow hiring.

The Obama administration and supporters of the new rule say the $23,660 threshold allowed companies to hold down labor costs by requiring workers with relatively low incomes to work well over 40 hours per week without additional pay.

The rule will likely face legal challenges, including claims that the U.S. Labor Department flouted legal requirements for creating new regulations. Republicans in Congress have said they will move to block the rule, but they would need to overcome a veto from President Barack Obama.

The new threshold was lower than the $50,440 standard proposed by the Obama administration last year, but the last-minute change to lower it, which was widely expected, did little to appease critics.

Any federal standard above the $35,100 overtime threshold in New York, which has a high cost of living, will inhibit economic growth in more rural states in the South and Midwest, Tammy McCutchen, a Washington D.C. lawyer who works with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday before the final rule was announced.

The threshold also disappointed proponents of the new rule, including Ross Eisenbrey of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute, who first pitched an overhaul to the White House in 2013.

“It means a million fewer employees will be helped,” he said before the rule was released.

(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Cynthia Osterman)