-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dave Kopischke Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 11:47 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: IBM Cuts Employee Salaries
On Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:57:35 -0600, Ed Gould wrote: >What wasn't posted was the fact that the salaries are being cut as a >result of a lawsuit claiming that IBM didn't pay overtime and >classified employees incorrectly so they couldn't get overtime. There >was much ado about OT (and not getting paid for it and the lawsuit (IBM >Lost and had to cough up millions). It goes to the root of when people >should get paid for OT. The way I understand this came about is a few salaried employees sued IBM because the weren't being paid overtime. <SNIP> Perhaps if one were to actually read the laws relative to what constitutes salaried exempt vs. salaried non-exempt vs. hourly, one might come to understand what constitutes abuse in this area. For instance, salaried employees are to be paid in whole day increments. So if you take off half a day for a medical thing, you are considered to have worked the whole day. Yet if you work an extra hour or two, you are not to be compensated for such. Sick time, work day, and vacation are supposed to be on a day by day basis, not hour by hour. Companies that force the hourly tracking for pay purposes open themselves to a lawsuit similar to what it appears that IBM has just lost. Now if I remember the wording of the law correctly (Fed and states word this differently, and the one that provides the most protection to the employee "wins"); if you are salaried non-exempt, and you are assigned more work that causes you to have to work, say an "extended work week", then you may only be eligible for straight time, but if your base compensation is below some floor, then you are subject to the hourly pay scales (and then Federal contract verbiage modifies this too, should your employer be a US Federal contractor). Another area of abuse, which has occurred in California: the law (at least up to 1996 when I left the state) was that once vacation was earned, it could not be taken away, regardless of what company policy may say. Yet companies regularly attempt (and get away with it) a use it or lose it policy. Various other states have similar laws. Just thought I'd throw my 1/2 cent in here. Regards, Steve Thompson -- All opinions expressed by me are my own and may not necessarily reflect those of my employer. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
