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I think it depends on what you mean by "forced."
Obviously no manager with half a brain would be stupid
enough to be overheard telling a worker "you must work
unpaid overtime or you'll be fired." But, if the job
market in that area is tight, both manager and worker
know that the worker has little to no choice but to
cater to demands that would be considered excessive
under better circumstances. In that case, it isn't a
matter of forced by decree but it definitely is a
matter of forced by circumstances. We've all seen
situations where employers feel safe in "cracking
down" because they know a situation change has given
workers less leeway.
Ms. Gilmore, with all due respect, I think your
comment about quitting and getting another job is way
off the mark. Maybe you don't realize that what you're
really saying is, if people don't like the job they
have, which took years and years of training and
experience to get, they should just drop it and go get
a different job which requires years and years of
totally different training and experience. And of
course finding work in a different field often
involves uprooting your family and your life and going
through all the trouble of moving. It often has too
because the new field you're looking in may not have
any openings in your area. You may as well say if
someone doesn't like the workload at his job as an
aerospace engineer in Washington, he should just quit
and go get a new job as an undersea TIG welder in
Florida. If it really was as easy to jump from one job
to another as you seem to believe, there wouldn't be a
problem with excessive hours and unpaid overtime.
--- Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> I agree, though also realize that this type of
> lawsuit is not new nor
> is it uncalled for. As I posted earlier, this is
> happening with all
> sorts of positions in all sorts of industries due to
> loose adherence
> to and downright abuse of US exempt labor laws.
> Exempt + At Will +
> zero accountability = trouble. Many companies are
> now auditing their
> job positions and many are flipping a good number of
> roles (especially
> non-senior ones) to non-exempt to lock step with the
> labor laws.
>
> On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Jodie Gilmore
> <jgilmor -at- pacifier -dot- com> wrote:
> > <rant on>
> > Well, pardon me for sounding like a right-wing
> radical (I can't help it),
> > but I think such a class-action suit it stupid. No
> one FORCED these people
> > to work overtime - they could always quit and go
> get a job that did pay
> > overtime (like CNC machine milling, for instance).
> They must have known up
> > front when they were hired that they weren't going
> to get overtime. If that
> > was an issue for them, they should not have
> accepted the position. They
> > could have also tried negotiating with the
> boss(es) to see if, like CPAs,
> > when there was a period where they worked TONS of
> overtime, they could
> > possibly trade and get a Friday off occasionally
> during light periods, for
> > instance. There are lots of creative solutions
> that do not require the
> > services of over-paid greedy lawyers. The
> litigiousness of our society never
> > ceases to amaze me. Sue Sue Sue. And I'm not
> talking about "Sue, a boy
> > named". Frankly, it makes me sick. Suck it up,
> work if you want to work, or
> > quit, or negotiate.
> > <rant off>
>
> --
> Bill Swallow
> HATT List Owner
> WWP-Users List Owner
> Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
> STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
>http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
>
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