Employees could set more flexible work schedules to better meet needs of their families under a change in federal law proposed by U.S. Sen. John Ashcroft.

The Missouri senator is the lead sponsor of the Family Friendly Workplace Act. Ashcroft said, if adopted, it would allow workers with consent of their employers to exceed the 40-hour workweek in order to take time off another week.

"It would not be illegal any more to take one hour off on Friday and make it up on Monday," said Ashcroft. "It is against the law to do that now."

The Senate is expected to address the topic in April.

The Republican lawmaker made his comments Friday during a teleconference call with reporters. In addition to the Family Friendly Workplace Act, Ashcroft discussed upcoming subcommittee hearings on what he said is the problem of judicial activism.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set compensation and work scheduling practices, including the 40-hour workweek.

In the nearly 60 years since, the workplace has experienced many changes, creating a need for more flexible scheduling rules, Ashcroft said. For example, in 1938 only 16 percent of mothers of school-age children worked; today, more than 70 percent work.

Since having at least one parent at home with the children is now the exception rather than the rule, parents need the ability to take off, without losing pay, for emergencies or events like parent-teacher conferences, the senator said.

Federal workers have benefited from such a plan since 1978. Ashcroft said federal workers, by a 10-to-1 ratio, favor the policy and say it improved morale and productivity.

"Some people in the past felt this would infringe on the 40-hour workweek," Ashcroft said. "The fact is, this is done only if workers and employers agree."

Similar legislation in the House is more narrow. It focuses on allowing employees the option of one-and-one-half hours off for each hour of overtime worked rather than getting pay as compensation. The Senate version also includes that provision, allowing employees to compile up to 240 hours of time for later use and, if they wish, to cash those hours in for pay at a later date.

The penalty on an employer forcing an employee to work more than 40 hours would be double that now imposed.

In regard to planned hearings in the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights, which Ashcroft chairs, the senator said federal judges who misuse their power to further their own agendas rather than following the law and the Constitution need to be brought under control.

"Over and over again the will of the people has been set aside by unelected judges," Ashcroft said.

The senator cited several recent federal court cases as examples of what he called judicial activism. They included a 1995 ruling that declared state-imposed limits on the term of their congressional delegations unconstitutional and a 1996 ruling that tossed out a voter-approved initiative in California outlawing discrimination on the basis of race, including affirmative action programs.

The judge "said it was offensive and struck down the will of the people," he said.

Ashcroft also cited Federal District Judge Russell Clark as an example of an activist judge. Clark oversaw the Kansas City desegregation case and in 1987 imposed a tax increase to "remedy vestiges of segregation."

The Constitution gives the legislative branch the sole power to levy taxes.