Day of Rest in Seven Labor Law - Wisconsin Labor Law Help please

Factual Questions
1

I work in a factory. Today I am scheduled to work my 12th consecutive day. Yesterday a coworker asked if I could work for her on Saturday. I told her I would be glad to but it would make for my 13th consecutive day worked and we had been told that we are not allowed to work more than 12 days in a row.

I asked my boss if it would be okay to make an exception. I want the additional overtime. My boss told me it would be fine with him but it is against the law.

I decided to do some digging on my own to find out what law could possibly be in violation. I found there is a One Day of Rest in Seven law that states that an employer can’t schedule an employee for more than 12 consecutive days.

Since I’m volunteering my employer isn’t actually scheduling me. Clearly the state can’t tell me how much or how little I work. I say how much I work. The state has no say, no right and no jurisdiction in this matter.

Obviously, my employer needs to cover their asses. They want to avoid regulatory action by the local politburo. Do I have any way around this?

2

There is a similar law that says you must be paid for every minute you work, and you cannot “volunteer” to come work for free.(because you,say, want to help your buddies during their shift, so you can all finish early and go to a party.)

This time, you may be honestly volunteering. But next time, maybe your boss will tell you to “voluntarily” come work for 14 days straight.Or 15 days, or 30…

The law is for your own protection.

3

Legally, they do. You wouldn’t complain if the state were enforcing overtime pay laws, would you? They want to make sure employees are protected.

4

I haven’t heard of this specific law, but our labour protection law (Arbeitsschutzgesetz) stipulates that you must have so-and-so many hours of rest (for sleep, travel, eating) between the end of one shift and the start of the next, so if your late shift on friday ends on 11 pm and your early shift on saturday starts on 6 am, that’s not enough time to get rested.
You also need days off for more rest in regular periods, and vacation for full rest.

This is both in your own and the employers’ interest: you need the rest, otherwise you have a breakdown; the employer wants alert, rested people, because tired people make mistakes and accidents.

That’s also why the state says that the employer has to give you vacation day of at least 23 days (over here), but that you are required to not over-exert yourself during these rest periods (likewise for weekends; if you go drinking on Saturday, fine, but if you show up hung-over, not rested, on Monday, you are taking a percentage of the work power you own to the employer away from him - you are “stealing” the work force owned).

And you can’t “volunteer” to break these laws because the employer has the power (with people lining up for the next job opening) to force you to volunteer.

5

Doubtful. Here is the actual text of the statute:

So the employer isn’t just required to give you time off, they’re required to ensure you take it.