The Glade 4.0

Ok maybe not...but it's close. It was announced at work that we have to work at least 20-25% overtime. Unpaid. Now I usually work that much anyway, but having it be mandatory really rubs me the wrong way.

Permanently?

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Do you literally mean unpaid, or do you mean normal wages versus overtime pay?

If it's the former, notify some kind of authority.

As for how long...a couple months at least. And I do mean completely unpaid. The authorities won't care as we are salaried employees.

But we still villify unions in this country (self included).

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Don't be so quick to paint this as an issue that unions would, or should, solve.

You can renegotiate your wage if its something thats likely to extend your hours for a year or longer. But temporary flexibility is why people are salaried.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

That's always been a pet-peeve of mine. If you pay me a salary, you pay me to complete assigned tasks, not put in X hours at the workplace. I completely understand your frustration; being told you have to put in Y more hours just irks me.

Howpin if there was a union involved, he'd be management and probably be working twice the hours to make up for the striking union workers.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

You can always tell them to pound sand. Yes than means getting not paid to do no work, with no promise of pay later, but you do have the "choice"

That said I've wondered for a long time if labor laws need looking at in regard to salaried employees.

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I prefer to think of them as "Fighting evil in another dimension"

it was because of the "salaried" title that my company got hosed up big time. Someone reported the company to the labor board, and they came in and did an audit. As it turned out... they had people incorrectly filed as Salaried employees who were not eligible for that distinction.

As a result, the company had to pay out a lot of cash to correct their booboo and now we get paid half time for any OT.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Yes, yes they do... the idea that for some reason some magical class (or classes) of employee are for no logical reason exempt from the law is ridiculous, and to me unconstitutional.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

Moose, do you want to work some OT? Its been pre approved!
No thanks. I got stuff to do.

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Holy shitsnacks!

yeah but sometimes we do work extra hours when it is needed. The OT is kind of superfluous at that point and we are doing it because the team needs help.

/shrug

You gotta show the drive and desire to be there for the group and not just be there for a paycheck. Bosses in this place notice these things.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

I don't get salaried *****. Salaried employees don't have a 40 hour work week, either. They make whatever hours they need to to get their assigned tasks and responsibilities done. If you're salaried and "required" to maintain a given 40 hour office presence, then you need to take it up with HR and get off your salaried designation, or have them create an hourly employee to maintain the office presence.

In exchange, when the **** hits the fan, you come in when necessary and work whatever it takes to get it done. You also tend to get better benefit progressions (vacation, sick pay) than hourly staff. That's the tradeoff.

Now, that said, I totally believe that there are HR departments out there that think that if they can squeeze your job description into the salaried bracket they can get free overtime out of you. To that, I simply say "negotiate your wage to match your output &/or lobby for additional staffing."

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Labor unions were created to combat unfair working conditions, unpaid overtime is an unfair working condition.

Vindicarre, he would be exempt under the current model yes but clearly the existing model blows.

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See, I don't find working overtime when you're a salaried employee who has signed an employment contract either "unpaid" or an "unfair" working condition.

The "current model" is the whole reason we vilify unions in this country.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

What are these "task" oriented jobs of which you speak? In theory my job could be that way, but there are always more tasks...

Ohio is an employed at-will state so we don't use contracts here.

Agree on the current model, Unions no longer exist for workers but rather for their own organizational interests. Very similar to Congress in that respect.

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Not entirely true, Hop. We don't *have* to use contracts in Ohio. That doesn't mean they don't exist.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Very true, most of the large employers avoid them and of course all CBUs need a contract.

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California's an at-will state as well, and every salaried position I've taken has involved some sort of employment contract. I guess I can't see working for someone without having some things being in writing. /shrug

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

The Fair Labor Standards Act was just updated in 2004. In fact, I suspect most of you don't know much about it, which is what your HR Department is counting on.

1. They have to keep track of how many hours you work as salaried.
2. You have to work 40 hours minimum a week, per Federal Law, as a salaried employee.
3. Anything more than 60 hours a week means they have to pay you overtime, as a salaried employee.
4. The current minimum gross income to be salaried is $23645 a year.

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Khross, by salaried do you mean exempt?

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Hopwin:

All Salaried employees have to meet the requirement for OT Exempt status. I think people confuse contract employees (professors, some executives, etc.) with salaried employees.

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Appears to be some confusion between the concept of hourly or salaried and the legal definitions of exempt or non-exempt.

This is a decent PDF on the differences, or you can go to the FSLA homepage for information.