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Takin' Care of Business and Working Paid Overtime
theodp writes "About 800 CA-based Siebel employees who held the job title 'software engineer' or 'senior software engineer' stand to pocket $27,000 each from the proceeds of Siebel's $27.5 settlement of an overtime dispute. And while IBM's 32,000 techies won't make out quite as well, they'll still divvy up $65M in OT pay that IBM's shelling out to settle a federal class action suit."
Wow! A $27.5 settlement that gives $27000 to 800 workers? How do I get that guy to be my accountant?
It is true, after sticking it out working a 75 hour week for 12 months salary in the US, I nearly refuse to even entertain the idea of taking a salary position. I would rather make minimum wage and be paid hourly than ever do that again.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Anyone salaried worker making 80 grand who works 80-hours every week should find a job more to his liking or start a union, not complain about unpaid overtime.
No kidding. That's less than $20/hour. You wouldn't need to go to college to make that. Both of my high school education brothers-in-law make way more than that and are home in time for supper.
It really has nothing to do with who took over Congress as to why this was settled. This is common practice by companies large and small that they classify non-exempt workers as exempt and screw the employee out of overtime. The typical employee moans about it but never bothers to do anything about it. It is a simple as placing a phonecall (well, not quite that simple) to the Labor Relations Board http://www.nlrb.gov/ . Most employees I suspect are non-exempt. I have done this several times with positive outcomes for myself and co-workers. Typically, If you mention the thought of calling the NLRB to someone in HR/accounting the problem will mysteriously go away.
...but there are still some dyed-in-the-wool attitudes where people don't think you have done a good day's work unless you are staying late...
This is how employers pit employees against each other to milk them for free labor. If employee A wants to get ahead, he's going to put in an extra half-hour. Employee B also wants to get ahead so he decides to outdo employee A by working an extra hour. And so on and so on. And then, in the end, the boss' lazy nephew or some other politically-connected individual--who rarely puts in more than 35 hours per week--gets the promotion.
And what are employees A & B left with? Heart disease and diabetes from eating crappy convenience food, getting no sunlight and no exercise. Some bargain.
I worked in a union workplace for many years and thought it sucked, but I have to admit that it's probably a good thing that the unions are there.
Henry Ford said:
We've completely forgotten that last bit over the last 50 years.
If you want to take these "radical" ideas of ultra-capitalists further, and get even wilder with a true "Free Market" -- compared to the joke we have today -- you also might like to note that shareholders are entitled to exactly one thing: a share of the residual profits. They are NOT entitled to tell buinesses how to run, nor to demand that residual profits be maximized. This whole idea of "shareholder value" is completely broken, and is anti-competitive and anti-innovation (and I mean real innovation, not the Microsoft kind). Look it up.
.Every time employers in the US get in legal trouble due to having employees, the pressure to outsource or offshore increases. We have an absolute infestation of laws, lawyers and lawsuits in the US, convincing everyone that he's been wronged.
The risk of hiring employees in the US is already high, and cases like this are driving it higher. When the risk and overhead per employee goes up there is less hiring, and more conservatism in hiring, which means the applicant with anything odd on his resume gets summarily rejected.
I often see slashdotters complaining that companies won't take a chance on them; the company demands skill X and the applicant thinks he could learn X in no time. Well suppose they hire you and you don't learn X? How hard is it to fire you? In the US, a fired employee has many ways to sue.
If we continue down this road, we'll end up like France, where it's almost impossible to fire someone. Students there recently protested against a proposed law that would let employers fire them within the first N months. Needless to say, they have high unemployment.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Stronger employee protections mean higher unemployment.
As for crazy overtime, everyone should do it for a few months at least, to find out what it's like and find his own limits. After that, you learn to probe for this when interviewing for a job. My last several jobs have all been about 40-45 hours per week, plus rare crunches.
If you are in California you can't be arbitrarily classified as salaried, nor can you voluntarily become salaried. Basically, there are two categories that can be salaried. 1. You must be licensed to legally work in your field, e.g. doctor or lawyer. 2. You are a manager and are directly responsible for at least two subordinates (no tricky crap like three guys managing each other). There is NOT a classification based upon a high salary. That loophole was closed many years ago.
If you work in a different state, you're probably screwed. If your employer is based in a different state, they must still follow California law for workers based in this state.
Other important labor points in California:
There is no such thing as use it or lose it vacation time. If the company won't give you the time off to use it, they must still pay you your vacation time.
A credit check of a prospective employee can NOT be required and can NOT be a condition of employment (positions requiring a government security clearance being an exception).
California is a right to work state. Non-compete agreements are generally unenforceable.
IANAL.
-- Will program for bandwidth