Bid to Block Repeal of Daily Overtime Fails

Dealing a blow to organized labor, a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that the California Industrial Welfare Commission was acting within its legal rights when it voted to scrap daily overtime rules covering 8 million workers in the state. The rules have required that workers be paid overtime whenever they put in more than eight hours in a given day. The decision by the Republican-dominated IWC in April to repeal daily overtime also is under attack in the state Legislature and could be challenged in a ballot initiative. Judge William Cahill rejected union arguments that the IWC lacked the authority to repeal the daily overtime rules because the Legislature already turned down similar proposals. The California Labor Federation said it will appeal.