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IBM Responds to Overtime Lawsuits With 15% Salary Cut

Posted by samzenpus on from the give-with-one-hand-and-take-with-the-other dept.

bcmbyte writes "IBM in recent months has been hit with lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of U.S. employees who claim the company illegally classified them as exempt from federal and state overtime statutes in order to avoid paying them extra whenever they worked more than 40 hours per week. The good news for those workers is that IBM now plans to grant them so-called "non-exempt" status so they can collect overtime pay. The bad news: IBM will cut their base salaries by 15% to make up the difference."

3 of 620 comments (clear)

  1. Lawsuit? Prepare for Other Pain... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I used to work for a Accenture, a rival firm. While we officially got paid overtime, booking it could get you into a lot of trouble. Bosses would say, not in writing, to not book OT. Try confirming that by email and you get stern warnings to not be a smart-ass. One guy I knew booked OT anyway. Legally, they couldnt say no. Next thing he knew, he was staffed in St. Louis! Ouch. So the people *suing* IBM? Expect pain much worse than salary cuts. They will probably be executing 100,000 line test scripts soon.

  2. What about "undertime"? by Fished · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The problem I've always had is that few employers seem to really grasp the concept of a salaried position. In a salaried position, I'm hired to get a job done, irrespective of how many hours it takes. If it takes me 40 hours a week, great. 50 hours a week, oh well. 30 hours a week? PARTY! But most employers don't get this. So they look on salaried as a minimum of 40 hours week. In my particular specialty (troubleshooting really big systems), that's just silly, because often there's nothing to do... so when I was really doing my specialty, I would often end up doing nothing, sitting at my computer just to keep the IM icon lit up, when I could have been resting up for the next 48 hour marathon problem. It's just annoying ... I mean, if I'm salaried, why do a timesheet? Yet they all want a timesheet. If they want me to work free overtime, then they need to g

    --
    "He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
  3. Re:Hmm by Sen.NullProcPntr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's wrong with not working overtime? Nothing, but don't expect to take home as much pay as someone who does.

    My experience has been that in an environment where you may be expected to put in extra hours the exempt employees are usually paid a little more than they normally would. In most cases if you are an exempt employee there is no need to fill out a time-sheet and while you may be expected to put in extra time on occasion the flip side is that no one will be looking for you if you take a long lunch or leave early on the "slow" days.
    While non-exempt employees do get paid overtime you usually need to fill out a weekly time-sheet (or even punch a time-clock)-: and sign under penalty of perjury that you did in fact work the hours listed.

    Give me exempt status anytime - if I don't like the hours I can always go elsewhere.

    Disclaimer: I'm not aware of IBM's work policies having never worked there.