CA Legislature Torpedoes IT Overtime

An anonymous reader writes to mention that a recent piece of California legislation is enabling tech firms to avoid paying their workers overtime. Originally designed to deal with bonds for children's hospitals, bill AB10 was completely rewritten to prevent lawsuit damages over overtime nonpayment. "'This is the first time that the Legislature has done a takeaway of the rights of private-sector workers as part of the budget deal,' said Caitlin Vega of the California Labor Federation. 'We just think it is wrong. We think it will really hurt the groups of workers who will be expected to work through the weekend and not get paid.'"

Comments

Hurts the economy, too

[phorm]

We think it will really hurt the groups of workers who will be expected to work through the weekend and not get paid

Not only that, but as this legislation allowed massive abuse of employee's time, the state will suffer as skilled workers start looking elsewhere for employment.

Re:It's time to start a union how long before more

[Blakey Rat]

No thanks, I much prefer individual bargaining than collective bargaining. I'm making more money and working at a vastly cooler company than ANY unionized employee could possibly be.

Re:well

[moderatorrater]

Actually, I see a lot more democrats than libertarians. Also, IT has a shortage of good workers and high barriers for new employees, so if every worker left a company that refused to pay overtime, then the company would fail almost overnight. Any substantial company I've worked for has a code base that takes months to learn well enough to be truly effective at your job, and if you can't get bugfixes out faster than that, then you're screwed. For other companies, if they can't get new products out they're screwed. The free market cuts both ways, it's just that people get so caught up in the fact that the company is big that they fail to realize they have the company by its balls.

get what you pay for....

[butterflysrage]

I work 9 to 5. I work HARD 9 to 5, but at 5 I log out and go home. If you want me to spend extra time at work then we need to do some negotiation for a new contract and you're going to be giving me more money.

I am not going to give up time with my family so some middle manager can get some slaps on his back for bringing in the project on a date he never should have agreed to in the first place. What ever happened to accountability? oh right.... they get $700bn bail outs.

Re:get what you pay for....

[spinkham]

Once again, the benefits of small companies shine through: If there's too much work, we either:

1) Roll in our piles of money,
2) Subcontract it, or
3) Turn down some jobs.

And we get to choose which option we want.

On the other hand, no matter what size company you are in, if you're working too much and/or not making enough money, you need to either improve your skills, change jobs, or change careers.
If you are intelligent, motivated, and willing to learn there is a good fit for you out there somewhere. It usually takes some hard work and sacrifice to find it and get your foot in the door though.

Compensation should absolutely be based on performance, not seat warming. That's the idea behind why we pay more senior people more, because we assume they perform better. The problem is we suck at rating performance.
This is why it often makes sense for people with extraordinary talent to start their own enterprises, as entrepreneurship does pay based on results.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'm quite that good, and am happy to share the work, risk, and rewards with others at the moment.

Re:It's time to start a union how long before more

[BadAnalogyGuy]

It is not laziness to want to eat dinner with one's family. Nor is it laziness to want to spend the weekend caring for them.

It is ridiculous to think that the company owns so much of your life that work should take the highest priority in one's life.

the trade off

[fred fleenblat]

I've worked some unpaid overtime in my life, but the amount is miniscule in comparison to the amount of time I've spent during normal working hours surfing the web, reading usenet, emailing my buddies, checking sports scores, ordering stuff from amazon, everything the internet allows. Easily two to three hours a day on an ongoing basis.

I just can't get mad about a couple hours of evening work or blowing a sunday afternoon in the office once a month when I'm just going to read slashdot while waiting for a batch job to finish.

Oh Really?

[Rand Race]

"the tracking of hours generally is anathema to the creative and free thinking computer professional employees,"

Indeed. As is the tracking of inventory.

I'm getting my overtime pay one way or another.

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

Both are quite OK with entitlement. The difference is that republicans don't like it when someone else is receiving it.

Re:You mean...

[Maxo-Texas]

The times it doesn't hold true are when there are non-capitalist distortions to the system.

Such as when executives get exclusive control of their own pay.

Such as when corporations have the government passing laws to forbid overtime.

Such as when corporations pay no taxes, use local services, and get all the work done remotely by overseas workers.

The system is broken now.

Lack of overtime pay will fix itself because no one will enter such a field unless it pays well.