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My employee rights.

E

Evelyn Brown

New Member
I have a question regarding my employee rights in the office where I work. My shift time starts from 9 am to 6 pm but most of the time I and our team were working till 8 pm and we did not get paid for two hours of overtime. We discuss this thing with our management but rather than resolving this issue, they put blame on our team for not working in a timely. Maybe sometimes it is our mistake but it is happening most of the time. So we are looking for some solution to this and know about our employee rights. Please share your suggestion on this so i can get more information.
 
Your rights depend on your jurisdiction. You would also want to look at your employment contract (especially if you work in a unionized environment and have a collective agreement) to see what it says. A good contract would usually outline the rules for overtime. Some explicitly state that overtime cannot be worked without explicit permission / direction to do so.

As a general rule of thumb, overtime work should be paid unless you are in a salaried management position or are considered an independent contractor paid for a job rather than by the hour.

Here's some questions you may want to ask yourself:

* Why not just leave at 6 pm if you're not being paid beyond that and there's no obligation to stay?

* If everyone starts leaving on time and refusing unpaid overtime, what might the employer do?
a) pay overtime
b) hire more people
c) fire people, and then have fewer staff to do the work that they're behind on

Most likely, you are in a position to file a claim for unpaid overtime wages (up to whatever local statutes allow retroactively), but you would have to keep in mind that doing so may sour your relationship with management.

You may wish to also consider seeking other employment.
 
Hi Evelyn Brown

Look at your contract and if there is anything in there that says in black and white, that says it is your right, if workijng overtime, that you should be paid. That has a lot of power. However, it is down to the employer and not the employee to demand over time pay and especially if it is mistakes which cause your team to have to work overtime, then the only solution is to actually make sure you all work as that team and get it right and then, it will be clearly seen that it is ligit reasons you are working beyond the clocking time.
 
Evelyn Brown said:
I have a question regarding my employee rights in the office where I work. My shift time starts from 9 am to 6 pm but most of the time I and our team were working till 8 pm and we did not get paid for two hours of overtime. We discuss this thing with our management but rather than resolving this issue, they put blame on our team for not working in a timely. Maybe sometimes it is our mistake but it is happening most of the time. So we are looking for some solution to this and know about our employee rights. Please share your suggestion on this so i can get more information.
Click to expand...
Where are you located?
 
Everywhere I've ever worked, over 8 hours is time and a half, and over 10 hours is double time. Over 40 hours a week is time and a half too.
 
I know a lot of people who do unpaid overtime. If it's happening every day for a whole team? Then you're overworked.

Them laying the blame on you isn't helpful. If you were to all finish at 6pm every day for say 2 weeks. Management would soon realise something needs to be done.

Hire more people, or pay overtime. Either way - make your employees feel valuable. But companies often rely on people going the extra mile. Workaholism is an addiction like any other, and yet it's one that's actively promoted and rewarded in society.

Ed
 
@Evelyn Brown

You haven't provided enough information for anyone to provide advice you can safely act on.

In Europe, at a medium to large company, with legal workers, this would be easy to handle, because the EU has labor laws. But even in the EU, employers pull this kind if thing on illegals all the time.

In the US, there are many more situations where the employer has a "blackmailer-to-victim" relationship with their employees. Labor Laws and Employment Contracts are less useful in those cases.

Bottom line:
* If you want advice you need to provide information.
* If you want good advice you need to provide good and comprehensive information.

Some things to consider:
* If you're working for an honest employer, and only your group is being treated this way, it will be possible to lean on low-level management a little. But it's not likely to be easy.
* If the entire enterprise operates this way, start looking for work.
* If there are no other jobs, start "gaming the system". This is as hard to pull off as applying leverage to ow-level management though - so read on.
* HR is not your friend: they work for the company, not for the employees. If stressed, their first instinct is to nuke the most visible employee(s)

If you plan to participate in a "mutiny", or to e.g. adjust your contribution to your income, be extremely cautious about sharing your objectives, techniques, or actions with anyone, especially your colleagues.

A relevant proverb:
"Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
 
In Australia only really scummy industries such as retail franchises and employment agencies pay salary instead of wages and they do this in the full knowledge that they're going to have a high turnover of staff. If you're working in an industry that doesn't require a great level of skill then you also don't get a great level of security.
 
Are you in the USA? Are you an hourly worker or are you paid on a salary? Without knowing those two answers no one can help.

If you are in the U.S. (Federal labor laws come into play) and you're an hourly, non-salaried worker then any hours over 40 per week need to be paid at 1.5 times your hourly wage per additional hour (aka "overtime"). It's the law. Can an employer in the U.S. require workers to work overtime? Yes. The remedy if a worker doesn't like it but management insists? Quit the job. There are some details that could complicate the situation a bit, but generally it's usually that simple.

If you are in the U.S. and you're a salaried worker (ie you get paid the same wage whether you work less than 40 hours per week or....you work more than 40 hours per week) then...no overtime pay. Management and executive level workers are often salaried. It's often the case where upper level salaried workers routinely work 50-60 hours per week and they don't get overtime pay when they do so.
 
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Some states (if you're in the U.S.) have laws protecting the employee from getting fired for no reason. Others have at-will employment where basically the employer can fire whoever for whatever reason.
Make sure you go look at all this stuff.
 
Evelyn Brown said:
I have a question regarding my employee rights in the office where I work. My shift time starts from 9 am to 6 pm but most of the time I and our team were working till 8 pm and we did not get paid for two hours of overtime. We discuss this thing with our management but rather than resolving this issue, they put blame on our team for not working in a timely. Maybe sometimes it is our mistake but it is happening most of the time. So we are looking for some solution to this and know about our employee rights. Please share your suggestion on this so i can get more information.
Click to expand...
First thing is to verify you are working in the United States. If so, then you need to determine whether or not you are considered an "exempt" employee or "non-exempt" in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. It should be a conditional matter, not open to any kind of debate. That you either are exempt or not based on the terms in which you were hired.

An exempt employee is a salaried individual who is exempt from any overtime pay or minimum wage requirements. A non-exempt employee is a wage earner eligible for overtime pay and minimum wage requirements. I worked for two years in the same corporation as a non-exempt employee hired as an insurance rater.

When I was promoted to an insurance underwriter, I lost that status becoming an exempt employee. Where on occasion I had to work six days a week without any additional compensation. Where my department had to come to work on a Saturday just to keep up with overwhelming amounts of incoming work to be processed in our department.

An exempt employee refusing to work on the weekend could be terminated for cause even in a state like California.

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/career/exempt-employee/
 
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To the best of my knowledge, in the US, if you are salaried, then there is often no overtime compensation. You signed a contract for "X" amount of dollars, annual salary, to work at least 40hrs a week, emphasis on "at least". If you are hourly, then you should get paid for your time. I know, that's an oversimplification, but I am of the thought that this is the way most businesses in the US operate.
 
Quite a few employers in the US have been taken to court for not paying for over-time. My one company even paid for meetings if we came in on our day off.

Any lawyer will look at how long this has been going on, how deep are the company's pockets, and the number of employees involved. So you can decide if you wish to call everybody together for that route. Also the employee handbook and employment contract will be another reference.

Your other option? If in the US? Perhaps looking for a federal agency to lodge a complaint however that is a 50/50% percent of going either way.

Perhaps have all the employees sign a letter that they will leave at 6:00 until they are paid for working overtime. Does this happen everyday? Send this by certified mail, you could even have an attorney draft the letter which would give you more of a presence. Finally if this is an "at will " state, they can dismiss all of you if this happened in the US.

Another option, look for a job where you are valued as an employee.
 
A labor law lawyer would be my first choice.

I worked at a communications company once. We had a union. That didn't stop the company from stiffing us for nickles and dimes along the way. The union just looked in the other direction.

Do that every day for hundreds of employees, and it adds up. Several times got I 4 figure checks in the mail because a disgruntled employee quit and sued the company. Because they were doing it to everyone, all the hourly employees were covered under the settlement. Making us start up the computers on our own time. Truncating fractions of 1/10th hours worked instead of rounding. Denying us FMLA coverage for legit medical issues. Etc.
 
One of our staff members suggests visiting Cummings & Franck, P.C. a professional employment layer in California to discuss this issue, and they really help us with some great advice.
 
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