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Interview with EA Attorney
An anonymous reader writes "Kotaku has an outline of a discussion with one of the attorneys handling the EA case. It has some interesting details, including the fact that if the judgment is in favor of the employees it will likely force the entire game industry, at least in California, to start paying OT and Comp. "Depending on the nature of a positive judgment, other employers with similar job descriptions would most likely be required to start paying their employees by the hour and paying overtime" The article also hints that other game industry cases might be forthcoming."
The problem is of course that if the employees succeed but the judgement is enforceable only in California, all the gaming companies will simply move their operations somewhere more condusive to their business practices.
Which is not to say that the employees shouldn't be pursuing the matter but simply that attempting to change the employer's practices through a state court action might not, in the longer term, have the desired result.
A second issue is would such a judgement set good precedent that applies to the software industry in California as a whole. It would seem likely that it would have a fairly 'chilling' effect on the development industry in California if it did.
I assume that EA will complain about having to do that to compete or something like that ("We can't higher more because it's too expensive!"), but that doesn't bother me either. Sure programmers in SanFran or the Valley or LA are expesive, but a big part of that is because they have to be able to afford those exorbitantly expensive homes there. If they would create a division outside of Madison, WI or Wichita, KS or some other nice city with more reasonable housing prices they wouldn't have to pay programmers so much. "In-source" to rural America (I saw an article about it the other day). When a small house costs 100-200k and not 1-2m, you don't have to pay your programmers nearly as much for the same standard of living. In fact, you can pay them less, and they can still have a BETTER standard of living. And it's not like a programming team can't be located anywhere. Surf instructors may not be able to do their job in Kansas (relative to CA), but a programmer's location doesn't matter that much.
It's one thing if EA specifically told employees the kind of hours they'd be working, but it sounds like they didn't, which is basically exploitation to me. Sorry, they sound guilty and this sounds like a good thing.
Of course, I'm not a big fan of EA in the first place. Just FYI.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Amateurs give their work away. Professionals get paid for it. If you're working overtime, especially lots of it, and you're not getting paid or comped for it, you're not a professional, you're an amateur.
Look at your bosses, the board, the executives, are they working for free? No, of course not, if they're working more than 40 a week, you can be sure they are getting compensated. I've been in the industry for over 2 decades now and I have learned that if you're not getting paid for your overtime, you are going to get F***'d bigtime. If they are promising you comp time, but don't put it in writing, you'll never see it. Same with ANY promises of ANY kind of payoff later on, unless it's in writing (and even then count your fingers after shaking hands) you won't see it.
In short, people who regularly make you work over 40 and don't pay you for it are SCUM. They're ripping you off, and they know it. I've worked on some of the most 'gee-whiz' crap ever to come out of DOD or private industry. They never asked us to work 'killer hours' without paying us. Why? Cause people who work 'killer hours' are less productive than those who work only 40. And after two plus decades in high tech, I can say that's definitely true.