Can my employer tell you an hour before your shift is over that there is manditory overtime?
On a regular basis we finish our work at least and hour before our scheduled quiting time. They make us leave so they save money but on certain days they'll walk around an hour before quiting time and say that overtime is manditory today and we can't leave until everything is shipped. I have kids that need picked up from practice and with an hour notice I can't always find a ride for them. If you leave at your scheduled quiting time, they write you up and use it against you. In addition, they have called meetings to talk about how the company is struggling and the economy is bad. They talk about how they don't want to lay anyone off but if we don't ge a certain amount of work done you never know what will happen. They follow the meeting by asking for volunteers to come in and work for free on Saturday. They say it won't hurt you if you don't but it can only help you if you do.
1 answer | asked Oct 20, 2010 4:58 PM [EST] | applies to Ohio
Answers (1)
If you are an at-will employee your employer can discipline you for almost any reason. The fact that you have children does not prohibit them from doing so unless you can prove that the discipline can be causually-linked to your gender as the caretaker of the children. So, mandatory overtime is not normally illegal.
What IS illegal, however, is if you are a non-exempt employee they CAN NOT have you work for free. This is a violation of both state and federal law and can be quite costly to them if they do it. "Volunteering" has no relevance.
posted by Neil Rubin | Oct 23, 2010 1:47 PM [EST]
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