First, its an hourly job and yes any overtime will be time and a half. The problem is im being scheduled for 12 hours a day without my consent. (btw thats not EVERYDAY todal hours per week only 55) My question is, can your employer FORCE you to work overtime? I’m guessing so.
which state? Is there a union contract? PErsonal policies?
IME, it’s the number of hours per week that is at issue, not the number of hours per day.
The nurses at a local hospital struck over the hospital policy of mandatory overtime. That was the term used on the news, and no one, not even the nurses, claimed it was illegal, just unacceptable.
AFAIK, so long as they pay you time and a half, they can work you as many hours as they want, unless you are in a job category like airline pilot or truck driver, where licensing requirements limit your time at the controls.
If you don’t have a contract, whether union or otherwise, that stipulates how many hours of work per week your employer can require, then yes, he can tell you, “My way or the highway”.
What state are you in, and who’s the employer (general category is fine–fast food, factory, what?)
I’m in Nevada, work Tech Support for a major computer company. (“Dude, your job is HELL!!”) I gotta tell ya back to back calls 12 hours a day is more then I can take. I could barely stand 8 hours of it.
I guess from the way it sound that you should never go into a job working 8 hours a day and expect it to stay that way as long as they pay you the time and a half for anything over 40 hours a week.
If I recall correctly, Nevada is a ‘right to work’ state, which means that the employer does get to set the hours etc, must pay overtime for hours over 40 per week.
WHy are they doing that? what advantage is it for them?
All right to work means is that you can’t be forced to join a union in order to work. It has nothing to do with hours.
Reeder if there’s a union contract, then the employer generally cannot arbitrarily re-set the employee’s hours and working conditions.
I’m not saying they can. Right to work just means you can’t be forced to join a union as a prerequisite for getting a job. I live in North Carolina which is a right to work state too.
In the USA - check out the Fair Labor Standards Act.
If your employer meets the requirements for coverage under FLSA, it’s relatively easy to read up on overtime regs.
You might even be lucky to live in a state, or have a decent employer, that pays you overtime for hours in excess of eight hours a day, as well as the 40 hours per week. That means, even if you work 40 hours in a week, but 12 of those hours take place during one shift, you will receive four hours of overtime.
Duckster’s dead on with his last paragraph there. My state is like that.
So are we saying that an employer can schedule me to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and legally get away with it? And then fire me for failing to show up for work or falling asleep on the job?
In New Mexico, at least, your employer can legally require you to work up to 16 hours per day, every day. The only stipulation is that you must be paid overtime pay for any hours over 40 in a week (assuming you’re older than 16, not disabled, not under contract, etc).
I know because I called the Dept. of Labor over this very issue, and found out it’s totally legal.
It’s cheaper in most cases for an employer to pay overtime than to hire a new employee. The costs of additional health insurance, the necessary physical work space for an additional employee, cost more than the 50% premium of overtime for existing employees.
At least for the short term. If this company does it as a routine for virtually all employees, I imagine the calculation may change. I think it would lead to a LOT of turnover, increased training costs, inefficient work by tired employees, etc.
GopherGod72, I suggest you check with your HR department about whether this will continue indefinitely. Perhaps they make you do this early on as some kind of accelerated training program, and it will end at the end of your probation period. But I doubt it, they sound like a bunch of assholes.
Care to name them?
I think he did…
You might have overlooked that, or you might not have been subjected to those evil commercials.
I do not like to personally name names and point fingers,
but if you were to guess “Dell” you would most likely be right.
Sorry, the reference whooshed right by me. I’ve never associated Dell with Nevada.
yojimbo - I guess I was thinking in terms of company hiring part time employees (often means no health benefits etc.) or contract employees (no benefits period).
Some states limit total work hours, and of course unionized shops have much more restrictive policies, but otherwise, yeah, your employer can do this. They can also fire you 'cuz they don’t like your haircut. No one has a right to a job – it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement between you and your employer. If either party decides it doesn’t like the deal, it can bow out.
–Cliffy