Slashdot Mirror
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?
It is implied on this page that they don't HAVE to give you the day off. It reads:
Judging by that, it's more of a suggestion than a requirement... But I also found this on this page:
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.
-- "A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."
Workers' rights? You must have forgotten that you live in the United States of Avarice. Now grab your pick axe, and get back to mining that salt.
How ya like dat?
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.
To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
My company has a policy that we're "always open." Last year, we experienced a blizzard so severe that the city issued tickets to any non-emergency vehicles on the road. The power at the building was also knocked out. Yet when we got back to work, we were expected to make up the time or use Paid Time Off. The excuse made by management was, "Sometimes you have to use you PTO benefit for the company's benefit." (!)
I'd been working there all of a month, or I probably would have contacted a lawyer. If it happens again, I'll definitely be exploring a class-action suit. In a state of emergency, when it's not safe to go to work, it's completely unreasonable to expect employees to come in. If it's not illegal, it ought to be. If I were you, I'd contact a lawyer.
Right...
I live in Florida in an area that was sure to be hit by Charley, I left Thursday and got a hotel room for me and my family ( I live 1 block from the Gulf in a low lying area). My work was open that Thursday until 3PM when the "Official" notice came to leave. The hotel I found was full that night and had I waited to leave until I was Allowed to by my employer I would've had a tough time finding a room and may have had to sit in an evacuation center for a few days. Anyhow, I did get a "Written Notice" from my employer for not coming in that day which I signed with a note saying that my family comes before my job.
The good news is that I hated that job and I quit today anyhow. (they're sleazy snakes) all in all, F any employer that asks you to stand in harms way so they can make a buck. If more people took this approach employers would have to be more considerate. I'd guess your employer is a publicly traded company, where Money is the only diety.
"The Most Fun Possible on 4 wheels" is at SunBuggy in Las Vegas
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
If I could only live my life with my threshold at 4...
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.
Whether it's legal or not, the management must be fools not to consider what this does to morale!
I guess it's harder to quantify human resources, enthusiasm, and loyalty than missed hours...
The Sun-Sentinel has an article! Here's a snippet:
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!US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
It would be one thing if your company had said anyone who didn't show up would be fired but that doesn't sound like what happened. From your description it sounds like the employeer just wasn't going to pay you for time you weren't at work.
... why should they? Are they really taking anything away from you if you didn't work. If you didn't work then the money you would have gotten isn't yours. They didn't take anything.
The question is
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
Why should your employeer pay you for time you didn't work? They didn't dock you anything. If you didn't work they don't owe you the money for said work.
It would be a totally different matter if they had said you would loose your job if you didn't come in.
One should not theorize before one has data. -Sherlock Holmes-
My concern here is that you aren't patriotic enough if you are asking such a question. Stop whinning. It is your patriotic duty to go to work rain or shine. It is important that you work unpaid overtime and even volunteer nights and week ends. Don't complain about your salary either, otherwise we'll outsource your job you unpatriotic-GDP-lowering-French-lover-commie.
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.
So you think the terms of your job should be "protected" by the government, huh? Obviously you've never heard of the Employment at Will doctrine. The answer to your question is yes, you have rights. You have the right to quit. Don't take that right lightly....you might not miss it until it's gone.
If the government is allowed to set down terms and conditions for when your company is allowed to fire you, what's to stop them from setting down terms and conditions for when you're allowed to quit? Sorry, you can't quit this week, a Hurricane is coming we need every able bodied employee available to stack sandbags. Quitting now would cause "excessive loss of profit" to the company and the "Protect our Jobs Act of 2004" says that's illegal. Try again next week, after the flood subsides.
No thanks. Employment at will means at their will, and yours. If you don't like the job requirements, quit. Get off your ass and find a better job. The market is picking up anyway.
Employers are pretty good at working together to lower wages and benefits. If we as employees could have half as much solidarity and less short term kiss-ass we'd all be much futher along. Workers rights are achieved only by fighting for them, and that's the only inevitablity here.
You know, I'm mighty tired of hearing this perennial bromide - Frankly, it's NOT that easy for employees to switch jobs (Especially in this market), and if you think ANY market is a "free" market you need a lesson in real-world economics.
Hear! Hear!
/. peeves. It hasn't been an employee's market for a few years now. Even if it were, you're being selfish by moving instead of trying to make the employer see the error of their ways. Not only because it only helps you in this instance but also because the employer will just keep doing it.
... and between that and the threat of annoying a supervisor and putting your job in jeopardy in the long-term, we should be -helping- the few people who are considering acting on the injustices, not giving them flippant responses.
The "if you don't like it, take your skills elsewhere" argument is one of my biggest
Will a person always succeed at changing things? Certainly not
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Find out your employment stats by talking with your HR department. They can tell you if you are classified excepmpt under the "Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)".
If you are exempt, and your pay has been docked, you have a clear legal case. If you are non-exempt, then your employer is just a jerk.
...(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).
If only that's what Labor Unions really did. That's their origin, and that's what they were/are meant to do, and that's what's badly needed, today.
But IMHO, there's a class of people that can smell money, and insinuate themselves into money flows. Some time ago, they smelled Union Dues, and the res is, sadly, history. Also unfortunately, some time back they began to smell Health Care, too.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Negotiating the terms of my employment is *my* right...I'd rather have a choice in how I do it. You like unions, and that's fine...don't assume that everyone else finds them a perfect fit.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
In a free country, people should be free to choose whether to join a labor union.
The very existence of corporations is a state intervention.
If a bunch of people want to form a business, and draw up some contracts to that effect, all well and good. But creating an artifical immortal legal "person" with all the rights but few of the responsibilities of genuine humans, that shields the partners from liability for their actions? That's a huge intervention in the marketplace. It's just one that's been around so long we don't even notice its presence.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood