A Georgetown Republican who's working to loosen restrictions on how much some teenagers can work, is now proposing to change overtime and break rules for adult workers.

That begins today's legislative update.

Labor allies say the proposal cuts pay and endangers workers safety.

In committee today, State Representative Phillip Pratt explained the changes that House Bill 500 makes to existing laws that date back decades.

Included in the bill are changes to overtime and wage rules on traveling to and from work.

Also, meal breaks wouldn't be required.

Instead, employers would have to pay workers for time spent eating on the job unless a meal break is provided.

Eliminate the 77th day overtime provision requires time and a half wages for hours.

Worked on the seventh day of the week.

Kentucky.

California.

Only two states still have this requirement.

Basically what this means is if you're working example 2 to 3 hours a day, on the sixth day, you don't pay overtime.

But on the seventh day you still have to pay overtime even though you have not hit 40 hours.

Bassett says.

You get overtime when you hit 40 hours.

Eliminate the requirement that employers must give a ten minute paid rest breaks for each four hour period work.

Kentucky is only one of a handful that still require employers to give adult employees paid rest, period for adult employees under 18.

You have to.

Others include Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Now, don't go wrong.

If you want to offer an employee a ten minute break period.

You still can.

It just not required.

And we're just a handful of states still do that.

The bill also would prevent travel time to be counted in the workday for those who use company vehicles.

House Bill 500 requires that workers are not clocked in until they arrive on site.

I can see emergency responders setting, going to lunch and get a call and have to go put out a fire and have to go.

So I can see that there could be situations where this would absolutely hurt maybe our first responders hurt or police officers.

A small business owner and labor lobbyist testified that the measure would be devastating to Kentucky workers.

This bill passed in its current form, would repeal Kentucky's rest periods, lunch breaks and seventh day overtime laws and eliminate overtime and minimum wage protections for activities such as travel time between job sites and donning and doffing of protective gear.

These laws have been in place since 1958 1974 and 1942, respectively.

Why the sudden urgency to repeal laws that are in place to protect Kentucky's workers?

Consider a nurse, for example, in a hospital that tells her she must work her full shift straight through with no breaks to eat.

House Bill 500 would be asking her to try and eat while providing medical care to patients.

We're not even at all.

If the employer does provide a lunch period and they discover that had workers eating at another time while on the clock.

Section three says they won't be required to pay their employees for that time.

Even if a worker is taking a snack break for medical reasons like diabetes.

It's too sunset Nurses.

I can tell you got nurses right now in hospitals that are eating, standing up because they don't get a lunch break right now.

This said if they are unpaid, they have to be relieved.

I can tell you both my sons will tell you it's not unusual for them not to get a lunch break.

They eat right through it because that's the workload they have to have.

What this is doing is asking our constituents to work harder and longer for less pay that less pay will lead to less payroll taxes.

It might lead to more errors and things like really complicated jobs like and stressful jobs like social workers and nurses and emergency professionals.

I think this is a very, very dangerous piece of legislation.

House Bill 500 that repeals Kentucky's current launch and rest period laws, as well as a law requiring time and a half for work done on the seventh day in a row.

Advance from committee and now awaits action on the House floor.