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Suing for Overtime?
An unidentified submitter asks: "There is a federal law that requires all non programmer-type jobs be compensated for overtime. Last year, over the course of a year, I have worked 500 hours of overtime without comp time, bonus, or paid overtime. I have since left the company, and currently I am attempting to sue the company for lost wages. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation, and do they have any advice/tips? Also is anyone aware of good computer/IT labor attorneys?"
"programmer-type"?
What would that meen. Do Network Administrators fall in that catigory? How about website developers? Website designers? I'm wondering, how is it defined, and where is the line drawn?
I think you will soon find that your emloyer considers that they factored in 'compensation' into your original package. At least that's what they "normally" do in Australia.
Perhaps the courts aren't your best recourse in this climate.
/* affect != effect */ void affect(int *thing,int effect) { *thing += effect; }
... altough some could argue repeated.
Are Coders Exempt From California's Overtime Laws?
If you were a contactor and/or paid by the hour, with all due respect, why in the hell did you not bring this up with your employeer immediately. Why did you work 500 hours (over three monts worth) and not say anything until you got fired (excuse me, "left the company")?
Every place I worked where I was paid by the hour made me specify how many regular hours I worked and how many overtime hours I worked with a clear explaination of the overtime policy right above where you sign the time sheet.
I and thousands of us here have been screw over by an employer (or two, or three), but this is unfortunately is your own damn fault.
WOW! /.'s target advertising is brilliant.
As I read this topic on overtime the banner ad has links for:
Time Card/Overtime Calculator Software" to help you track it,
Woodley and McGillivary overtime lawyers and
Edwards and George overtime lawyers to help you sue for it and
Career Builders to help you find a new job when you are done with the lawyers.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
I'm in the same boat.
Were this a different economy, I'd probably push the issue knowing that if I lost the fight I'd be able to go somewhere that had fair compensation policies.
Preliminary research shows that IT managers can choose to compensate excessive overtime via flat fee bonuses or comp time, but probably should not be paid on an hourly basis. The dilemma for employers who really want to do right by their employees is that overtime compensation for exempt employees can threaten the employee's exempt status, and trigger a retroactive compensation for all overtime worked over the last three years. Though, the threat is usually blown out of proportion by companies who want to hide behind these gotchas in order to get lots of free labor.
Though I haven't been keeping track of my hours worked to date, it might be appropriate considering that the number of weekends that I'm expected to sacrafice to my employer is extending well into the spring, and conflicting badly with my more important responsibility of being a good husband and father.
I think the only way one can reasonably expect to confront their management and seriously expect compensation is if the entirety of the IT department goes in together and acts *gasp* almost like a labor union. This is a very dangerous move, and will definitely trigger threats by the employer and maybe a few token dismissals to drive the point home. But they cannot afford to lose their whole IT department at once and if everyone sticks to their guns, real change can happen.
I need to take my Palm Pilot out of mothballs; I used to have an application on there to break down billing hours for all of my clients, and it did a great job of reporting my hours over a given period of time. That way if anyone gives me crap for going home early on a sunny friday afternoon I have something to point back to. Better yet, I'd rather have official comp time or straight time compensation.
There are an awful lot of salaried, non-manangement people who've been working bazillions of hours of unpaid overtime.
AFAIK, this is fully permitted by law; overtime pay is specified in the terms of their employment contracts.
If you know of a specific federal law that mandates pay, regardless of exempt status, I (and 60 million other salary-slaves) would certainly appreciate a link to the relevant law.
Karma
California also has some of their own additions, if you live there look into them.
4 1/29CFR541.3.htm
http://www.dol.gov/dol/allcfr/ESA/Title_29/Part_5
Not many people outside of operations environments are non-exempt in IT. As such, they are paid for their skill, and not their time.
Dan
a group of employees including myself got such a case settled about 10 years ago. But you will need some luck on your side. You will need your time sheets documenting your overtime. And now the luck part. typically, an employer will have rules (like a behaviour guidelines/holiday leave policy etc) and will spell things out for non-professional staff such as secretaries, admin support staff etc and a set of guideliness for professional employees etc. if you have proof that they ever changed your employment class ie treated you like an hourly employee when you are on a salary they are toast. In our case the employer did two stupid things: the company docked one programmer 1 days worth of pay for taking a two hour lunch and wrote a memo demanding that professional employees should routinely work 15-20 hours of overtime a week.
Just because the contract says that doesn't mean it's enforceable. If it violates some state or federal law, then the clause would be rendered unenforceable.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer