Employees Rights in an Emergency?

Waiting-for-Ivan asks: "In Florida in the past month and a half, we have survived 2 hurricanes. During the last one I was within the areas with a hurricane warning (i.e. hurricane conditions are expected within 24 hours). My company (who will remain unnamed) wanted everyone to come in. Those who did not come in had their pay docked (salary or hourly didn't matter) and threatened with loss of their pay for Labor Day. We are not an emergency facility whose services are required during an emergency. Is this legal? Can they make us come in during a hurricane warning (or any other environmental emergency) and if we refuse can they punish us for not doing so? Do we as employees have any rights (and can they dock salaried employees so easily)? What laws are in affect explaining these circumstances?

Comments

Looks like you don't have any, but...

[tao_of_biology]

First, the obligatory IANAL... Now that that is out of the way.

It is implied on this page that they don't HAVE to give you the day off. It reads:

All county employees who are not Hurricane Frances mission-critical should not report to work on Friday, September 3rd in order to prepare themselves and their families. Private employers are urged to provide their employees the same flexibility.

Judging by that, it's more of a suggestion than a requirement... But I also found this on this page:

South Florida's labor and employment lawyers got some unexpected business, thanks to Hurricane Frances and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. As the storm threatened South Florida over the weekend, Rundle and County Mayor Alex Penelas publicly warned employers that they could face criminal prosecution for forcing employees to work during the hurricane.

So, it sounds like people are suing for being forced to work during the hurricane, which might be a slightly different situation than yours.

Sounds to me like your employer is just a major league ahole, and you might not be able to do anything about it.

Varies by state

[rot26]

Florida is a "right to work" state, meaning that they can terminate you for pretty much anything OTHER than race/age/sex/religion (i.e. things explicitly covered by law.) As far as docking pay, that's also legal, as long as your weekly average hourly wage (pay/hours) doesn't fall below federal minimum wage.

It's a weasely thing to do but there's probably not anything you can do about it.

Talk to an employment lawyer about this!

[aidoneus]

Seriously! This is far beyond the realm of an "Ask Slashdot"! I can see wanting to get a feeling for the experiences of others, but how many times did you ask "is it legal"? Laws may vary from region to region, but I cannot imagine in an area that is about to become a disater area that your employer would be allowed to do this.

That being said, TALK TO A LAWYER ABOUT THIS. You should be able to get at least a reasonably cheap 15-30 minute consult to get the answer you need. Also, talk to the appropriate parts of your state's government, ie THESE GUYS.

Hope that helps.

-jason

Call your state attorney

[segvio]

During the hurricane a state official was on the television reporting that many similar events had occurred. She mentioned to call the state attorney. The relevant information is available at http://myfloridalegal.com/contact or you can just call 1-866-966-7226.

What I found

[BrynM]

There's a mention at Law.com that reads:

Storm Brews Over Employer Liability for Workers Called In During Hurricane Frances
Storm Brews Over Employer
09-08-2004

South Florida's labor and employment lawyers got some unexpected business, thanks to Hurricane Frances and Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. As the storm threatened South Florida over the weekend, Rundle and County Mayor Alex Penelas publicly warned employers that they could face criminal prosecution for forcing employees to work during the hurricane."

Unfortunately, the full article requires a subscription. So I went to the Miami Daily Business Review site and they require a subscription as well. Off to the Google News Search!

The Sun-Sentinel has an article! Here's a snippet:

In Broward, 19 employees from seven employers have called the county's hurricane hotline to report they thought they were being required to work during unsafe weather conditions or face firing... "There is no state or federal law that gives employees the legal right to not come into work," Caulkin said, although he said he thinks most companies tend to be accommodating toward workers' needs during storms.

So apparently there's nothing in law, but you might be able to put a little fear in your employers pants by calling the hurricane hotline. Good luck!

Re:Right to Work?

[RobKow]

No, "Right to Work" is a political euphemism for a law that prevents labor unions from negotiating a contract with employers that prohibits them from hiring non-union laborers.

Thank your employer

[n9hmg]

... for showing his true colors. Things are improving(praise W). Find a human boss, and leave.

Ask you union

[Magnus Reftel]

Have you tried calling your union? Things like this is what they are there for!

three novel suggestions...

[nusratt]

...(or, "Can you say 'passive-aggressive'?")

1. PUBLICITY...
Find out which other workplaces (near yours) are/aren't doing the same as your employer.
Even better, get friendly with people at other jobs who have the same problem.
Then all of you call the local TV news shows, radio talk-shows, and newspapers, and ask them to do a story publicizing the situation and the names of the offending employers.

And after the storm is over, DO post the names of those employers anonymously on some very public forums, and then anonymously email links (to those threads) to the head of personnel and the CEO.

If it's a publicly-traded company, find out which socially-conscious funds are investors -- especially union pension funds, California state employee pension funds, etc.
Anonymously tell the funds about the story, and cc your message to your CEO, AND to your corporation's department of investor relations.

2. Ask your doctor to give you some sedatives because of the extra "anxiety" caused by the coming storm. Call in sick because you're impaired by the tranquilizers. They can't deny your sick-pay.

3. Have a slip-and-fall injury in their parking lot, due to the bad weather. Get sick-time off. Better yet, get disability pay and workmen's-comp.
Better yet, sue their asses if you're hurt badly enough (btw, this is another idea for point #1: tell the company's liability insurer about what the company is doing).

"Right to Work" is a political euphemism for ...

[waynegoode]

"Right to Work" is a political euphemism for a law that forbids companies from forcing employees to join labor unions (or pay the equivalent money) for the right to work.

In a free country, people should be free to choose whether to join a labor union.

Re:Similar situation last year

[Stephen Samuel]

It makes complete sense to me that you don't get paid for time that you don't work -- but if you've been putting in extra hours, anyways, then it's time for the company to eat it's own crow. (rather than mandating that the 'makeup clock starts now', which is what it sounds like.)

As for retaliation for not risking your life for a non emergency-critical job, Them's probably lawsuit words.

In Canada, I think that most provinces have rules that don't allow employers to force employes to put their safety at risk. I can't predict what's the case in the US, but I'd hope so.