Sep. 11, 2003 - Sunrise nurse Diane Flock went to work happy on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate had just voted to stop the Bush administration from implementing new overtime pay rules that critics say would cost 8 million workers the right to extra wages.

Flock was watching the news as she was getting ready for her nighttime shift caring for Alzheimer's and elderly dementia patients at Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale.

"I'm ecstatic," she said. "This shows that people can make [a] difference."

Flock spearheaded a letter-writing campaign among co-workers and nurse groups in Florida to oppose an overhaul of overtime regulations by the U.S. Department of Labor. They wrote to labor officials and Florida congressmen.

It was likely the outrage of such workers across America -- and lobbying by powerful union groups -- that led a divided U.S. Senate to defy a White House veto threat and vote 54-45 to delay for a year a proposed expansion of overtime exemptions for white-collar workers under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.

"With a stagnant economy and nearly 9 million Americans out of work, it is immoral to try to cut the pay and gut the rights of hourly wage workers," Florida's senior Democratic senator, Bob Graham, said in a statement after voting on the overtime amendment.

The measure was attached to a broader $138 billion spending bill for U.S. health, labor and education programs. President Bush has said he may veto the entire spending bill if the amendment was attached.

Almost immediately, business groups in South Florida and throughout the nation decried the Senate action as reactionary and bowing to the interests of labor groups such as the AFL-CIO.

"Labor's claims are over-inflated," said Lisa Berg, an employment lawyer with Stearns Weaver Miller. She also said the vote was premature -- that the Labor Department hadn't yet finished drafting the new rules. The Labor Department was still reviewing the nearly 80,000 letters and e-mails it received during a public comment period, she said.

The Miami law firm sent an eight-page letter in June to labor officials on behalf of the South Florida and Broward County's hospitality human resources associations.

The tourism-related trade groups, which collectively represent 100 hotels and resorts employing 25,000 in the tri-county area, support clarification of overtime rules.

"The truth is that existing overtime regulations are so vague and confusing that even sophisticated business people have trouble making sense of them," Berg said.

That confusion can lead to costly mistakes for employers, who in recent years have been plagued with overtime lawsuits from workers.

Class-action claims can result in multimillion-dollar settlements.

The Bush administration has argued that changes are needed to modernize antiquated work rules and keep up with a 21st century workplace.

"The proposed reforms are long overdue," U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said in a statement after the Senate vote. "Unclear regulations hurt workers, because the department's investigators find it difficult to fully enforce the current regulations, employers don't know what their responsibilities are, and workers don't know their rights."

The Depression-era Fair Labor Standards Act created the 40-hour workweek by guaranteeing overtime pay, at time and a half, for each hour worked over 40. The law allows for the exemption of administrative, professional and managerial workers.

Under the Labor Department's plan, more employees could be reclassified as exempt administrators, professionals or managers. In addition, white-collar employees who make more than $65,000 a year would be considered "highly compensated" and likely exempt from overtime.

A study by the liberal Economic Policy Institute estimates that 8 million workers in 257 occupations -- including nurses, cooks, secretaries and electrical technicians -- would lose overtime pay.

In Florida, the change would affect about 441,000 workers, according to Graham's office.

The Labor Department has disputed the EPI study and says about 650,000 white-collar workers could lose overtime, but that 1.3 million low-income workers, such as assistant restaurant managers, would become eligible by raising to $22,100 the annual pay below which overtime must be paid.

The final fate of the proposed rules remains unclear, as they now faces a number of procedural and possible legal twists and turns, political experts said. Negotiators in the House and Senate will have to untangle the disagreements.

The overtime issue was heavily lobbied on both sides, and, in a rarity, all four of the Democratic presidential contenders in the Senate arranged their schedules to be present. All voted for the amendment.

The voting was largely along party lines, although six Republicans voted to derail the Labor Department and one Democrat, Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, joined 44 Republicans in opposing it.

The Republicans were Ted Stevens of Alaska, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.

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(c) 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.