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Nah, it doesn't make sense. If it were that big a deal, more companies would be doing it. I suspect the NWU's efforts did very little, and the CLC provision is being legitimately avoided. I don't see these companies as scofflaws at all. No other state has this nonsense.
Note from this that NWU cites 2000 as the effective year, not 2008 (maybe 2008 was when it got into the CLC) -- but also note what they say about 1099-based freelance contractors:
It's all pretty complicated, really. I just don't see this all as being viable. For W-2 contractors, companies can just say, "You're not allowed to work more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week." Case closed. (And that gets back to the Writer A/Writer B distinction I made in the earlier case. Writer A gets capped at 40 hours a week. Writer B has no such restriction.)
Steve
On Tuesday, June 23, 2015 11:21 AM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
Lots of tech companies are scofflaws about work rules, proper classification of employees vs. independent contractors, and so on.
Two tech writers I know who work for a subsidiary of a giant multinational conglomerate started getting overtime after the Hoenemier v. Sun Microsystems settlement in 2010. Given that Oracle had by then acquired Sun and had to pay the settlement, I would bet that their policies are in line with the law.
On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Janoff, Steven <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- hologic -dot- com> wrote:
> So since 2008, when the law was enacted, companies up and down California have been paying all kinds of overtime pay to their software technical writers.
>
> Has anybody seen this? I haven't seen this.
>
> There's no way all these companies are in violation of the CLC. Something else has got to be afoot.
>
> Steve
>
> On Sunday, June 21, 2015 12:08 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote:
>
> Anyone can do any kind of work. The law regards only when employers must pay overtime.
>
> Overtime regulations apply to all non-exempt employees whether salaried or hourly. California Labor Code Â515.5(b)(5)'s exclusion of most tech writers from being classified as exempt applies either way.
>
>> I assume that this only applies to hourly work? I assume one can be a salaried employee and write software documentation? Or by definition, based on California Labor Code Â515.5(b)(5), if you do the kind of work described there do you have to be hourly/non-exempt?
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