Fired for requesting OT pay (Houston, El Paso: crime, unemployment, go bankrupt) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

DesertDog · 01-09-2009, 11:23 PM

This is another nice lady story.
Nice lady get job working with elderly(hospice). Nice lady gets talking with fellow employee and young employee tells nice lady company doesn't pay for overtime work. Young employee shows nice lady pay stub for 80 hours worked in one week all at straight time and nice lady tells young employee that she should ask about overtime pay because it's a Federal law. Young employee calls boss and ask about overtime pay and is told a mistake was made and by the way she's fired. Nice lady is devastated that young employee lost job and is wondering if she should have kept mouth shut.
Here's the question. Should nice lady counsel young employee to call Labor Board and report this company which will probably cause company to shut down and cost many other young employees to lose jobs or should nice lady keep big mouth shut to protect other young employees?
Is this common in El Paso?

Muhnay · 01-10-2009, 08:00 AM

A crime has been commited. get a lwayer now. Sue company. That is all.

HappyTexan · 01-10-2009, 08:18 AM

You're not protecting the younger workers by keeping quiet..you are protecting the company that is stealing rightful pay from these employees.

Report the company. There are rules against slave labor in the US.

southernbliss · 01-10-2009, 08:49 AM

Labor board!!!!I can not believe there are still companys out there that do this.

They should be made to shut douwn people like that make me sick.

DesertDog · 01-10-2009, 09:57 AM

Nice lady is pretty sure young employee used nice lady's name in conversation with boss so come Monday nice lady may also lose jog. Nice lady is going to tell young employee to call Labor Board and after Monday nice lady may become pitbull and then it'll get interesting.
Something similar happened to my wife in Las Vegas and the Labor Board jumped all over this company ,seized books, got my wife all her money and put a huge fine on the company.
What's funny to me is doesn't this hospice company realize this fired employee will file for unemployment most likely and will tell why she was fired? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Could criminal charges be brought against the owner,office manager (who initially told nice lady they didn't pay overtime), accountant(who must know what is going on)? I just find it hard to believe this is still going on in this day and age.

piyf · 01-11-2009, 10:48 AM

Eh. atleast she got paid for working over 40. I got paid minimum wage over 40hrs. But my ex-company was one of the few that could get away with it and were exempt.

DesertDog · 01-11-2009, 02:31 PM

danieloneil01
What kind of exemption did your ex-company have? The law is very clear on OT pay.

piyf · 01-11-2009, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesertDog

danieloneil01
What kind of exemption did your ex-company have? The law is very clear on OT pay.

I looked on the labor board and they're exempt. At one time we got .75 cents an hr after 40. It's called compensating overtime (or what everyone else calls it "chinese overtime". The more overtime you worked the less you would get per hour. Someone took them to the labor board and they ended up having to pay atleast minimum wage over 40hrs. We had to sign a paper saying we wouldn't sue and they paid us at min. wage for a 2 or 3 yr back pay. Statue of Limitations for this was 2 or 3 yrs can't remember it was so long ago.

I recently left this job after 8yrs and I was getting like 8/hr overtime. My base salary for 2 weeks was 1600. Company is called Intertek Caleb Brett. It's funny because if they paid us by hour they would go bankrupt. We worked doctor hours without doctor pay working with some of the scariest and nastiest chemicals made in Houston. Ones like acetonitrile, phenol, benzene, aniline oil and etc.

DesertDog · 01-11-2009, 05:19 PM

Sounds like you made a good move getting out of there. Hopefully the new job works out better for you.

piyf · 01-11-2009, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DesertDog

Sounds like you made a good move getting out of there. Hopefully the new job works out better for you.

It was fun because you met alot of people from around the world. Mostly worked on Chemical Tankers and barges. It was a great stepping stone. But I always tried to get on with a Refinery or Chemical Plant. It's funny because I never wanted to work for one that made it's money off refining gas and diesel. And yet I'm at a place that is just that. We don't refine it but it comes down the pipeline from Houston.