Can employers do this?

[elevan]

Quote:
An employer most certainly CANNOT do what ever they want! Working more than 40 hours per week requires time and a half pay (federal law). They can tell you they don't want you to talk Union - but they CANNOT fire you if you do. They cannot so drastically change / increase your work hours and make them mandatory unless you signed a contract allowing it to happen. IF they are not already a union plant then they would have to have signed individual contracts for each employee.

Contact the IL dept of Labor, contact OSHA and if you want contact an attorney.

 

[redhen]

As far as i know... in this state.. they CAN change your hours to whatever they want...
And you have to work them... or you get fired.
But..They DO have to pay you the legal overtime though...

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
we give 15 minutes every 2 hours, 30 minutes at the 4 hour mark, 15 minutes at the 6 hour mark and every two hours after 8 is 15 till you hit the 14 hour mark and it goes to 30 every 2 hours.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
Yes, but it wasn't a major concern for us. Half of our seasonal labor was temp, the other half was folks who were there forever and knew what the job was, kept their head down and just did it. Drove nice cars, raised wonderful kids, wives all mingled and socialized. It was a good place, don't let me paint it so bleak, but some folks just can't work as hard as I needed them to. Darwin's law.

Boyd, I am ignorant about Darwin's law about working........some folks either put their noses to the grindstone or die trying. That is why the company has that 180 day probationary period so they can weed out the weakest from the strongest......I think roughly 7/8 of the temps working there, left after the first week of 120 to 130 degree temps inside the company....hubby makes sure everyone is well hydrated and NO arguing to him that you are ok when you are not. particuarly the females.

darwin's law .. fittest survive. Admittedly, I wasn't proud of what I had to do, but it was mandated by the director and board of directors. Otherwise I was hitting the bricks. I must say though, 70% of the workforce did agree with our rules and how we dealt with folks. It was just that there were a lot of folks who had a whole lot of quit or don't care around our area.

Your hubby's job does sound like it is a bit of a hostile working environment (I did mention this earlier I believe) and I wouldn't have any part of that. I was also a Teamster, so trust me, I do know about federal laws about organizing and being a part of a union... and his employer is breaking federal and state law there. I was merely giving the other side of the coin.

 

[debilorrah]

On the church thing. I am not sure if it is Federal oor California law, but I know here an employer cannot discrimnate against an employee taking time off for religious purposes. I tend to think it is federal being that religious freedom was what started us in the first place.

If someone requests time off to attend Good Friday services, Ramadan celebrations, Palm Sunday, etc., the employer has to let them go. They do not have to pay them, but they cannot hold it against them.

 

[Dunkopf]

48 states have work at the will of the employer. They can set whatever rules they want. They are required to pay overtime for over 40 hours per week. Jobs that get paid OT for over 8 hours are usually Union in some way. I had a job that had a voluntary union. The non union members got the same benefits as the union workers.

It is not illegal to talk about forming unions. You can get fired for it. Nothing illegal about firing people for trying to make better and safer working conditions. That's what the Employer Free Choice act is all about. Unions are the reason why we have 40 hour work weeks with OT after 40 hours.

It's a shame the way some employers are taking advantage of the tough economic situation to overwork their employees.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
Ok: Once a group of employees 5 or more begins discussions with a Union and an employer tells them they will be fired for it - that is illegal. Highly illegal. CA overtime laws state more than 8 in one day OR 40 hours per week. Say someone works 36 hours M-F and 8 on Saturday. 4 hours would be overtime.

I have worked in HR for years now, but I really only CA law. CA law trumps Federal in most cases unless the state government agrees with uses Federal law.

 

[EweSheep]

Hubby's female co worker's husband is a union member of some sort under another company and she was going to have him investigate and get more into it how to form a union. However the company got the wind of it and threatened the employees in the meeting, IF they EVER decide to form a union, ALL of them are going to be fired and they will NOT get unemployment.

So there was no more talks about union or even starting one up for two days now.

There will be a mandatory overtime Sunday despite of the protests from the churchgoers.....AND they will be required to work the rest of the week. The employer has no idea when they can take the next Sunday off as long the orders are being met. No control if the parts has not come in by truck, or something that holds up the order for any reason at all. One supervisor told the packaging employees to go ahead and ship out the boxes with missing or backordered parts. Uh no, those boxes are going overseas to be assembled or to our CAT plant to do some assembly. My uncle works for CAT and he complains that the boxes he got had missing parts or broken parts (none of it was hubby's specs). So CAT is hammering this company to do BETTER. So the word BETTER means to them, get tough with the employees. Hubby had to fight his supervisor that the packages he puts on HOLD are on backorder for parts and they will NOT be shipped out until the part is in. Supervisor didn't care so when the other assembly plant get this box with the missing part, who gets chewed out? Hubby and his co workers! Shipping different parts out with backorders, would just cost the company more money and more delays on the orders they could have fufilled. Hubby takes great pride in quality work, no short cuts or skimping on parts that are NOT the correct part (you would not want to send the wrong size bolt and screws).

Hope he has a better day today....he loves the work but the supervisor and people above are idiots, not knowing what the job entails, what problems comes up when parts are missing or backordered and their hands are tied because ordering parts are limited certain numbers per day. If you order ten parts, and the supplier says, no you can only have eight parts, then you are holding up two orders waiting for the two parts being ordered. It is a never ending cycle and that way for five years per hubby's line leader.

 

[Mattemma]

They can do anything.Shame.The boss should do like that undercover boss show and get a job working in his company so he can see the changes made are not always the best option to increase profit. Sadly most workers just have to suck it up or get another job,because employers know they can find workers easy. I remember one boss(nursing home) said that nurse aides were *a dime a dozen*,so if we wanted a raise we could go look somewhere else. I did that but the higher pay never made up for losing a job at the place I liked the best.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Boyd, I am ignorant about Darwin's law about working........some folks either put their noses to the grindstone or die trying. That is why the company has that 180 day probationary period so they can weed out the weakest from the strongest......I think roughly 7/8 of the temps working there, left after the first week of 120 to 130 degree temps inside the company....hubby makes sure everyone is well hydrated and NO arguing to him that you are ok when you are not. particuarly the females.

darwin's law .. fittest survive. Admittedly, I wasn't proud of what I had to do, but it was mandated by the director and board of directors. Otherwise I was hitting the bricks. I must say though, 70% of the workforce did agree with our rules and how we dealt with folks. It was just that there were a lot of folks who had a whole lot of quit or don't care around our area.

Your hubby's job does sound like it is a bit of a hostile working environment (I did mention this earlier I believe) and I wouldn't have any part of that. I was also a Teamster, so trust me, I do know about federal laws about organizing and being a part of a union... and his employer is breaking federal and state law there. I was merely giving the other side of the coin.

It would be nice if you can be the leader for this company LOL!

I remember the first day he laughed about the rules and he did agree to most of the rules....no BIG jeans that rides below hips and you must use BOTH hands..you could not work with just one hand doing the work while the other one is holding your pants up LOL. The first week, a guy came in with those kind of jeans, he was warned, put on a belt and then the next day, he did it again, yelled at the supervisor, "discrimination" when they told him he had his warning of not wearing a belt. That guy said because I'm black and you're being racist because you dont like the way I dress, that aint COOL man! Well that "man" fired him on the spot. You only get one warning, next time you're terminated. Same for smokers....if they catch you getting a sneak smoke, you're fired AFTER the fact you have been warned or informed in a meeting when you first got your job orientation. Those rules, we all can agree it is a safety hazard and it cost the company money when one is shortchanged or slowed down when it should not be. The smokers understand that reason and they don't fight it but a very few would get away with authority or dont know the boundaries.

CAT does not want this company to be union, number one, the wages, if they form a union, CAT would be forced to pay MORE like their own employees at the major plant. CAT is hiring LESS union folks because of the very reason....PROFITS and they have MORE power to deal with the employees. Yes union members in that plant ARE shrinking but neverthanless, the quality of the products they have sent out are pretty good. Like my uncle at CAT said, keep your mouth shut and do what the management wants you to do even it is wrong. I dont like that mentality but we really don't have much of a choice when permanent full time jobs around here are so scarce.