In the US there is a Wage and Labor Board, a government agency that oversees this type of company 'slavery' and takes steps to rectify the situation.

When a sheetmetal company my husband works for started this type of bullshit with commercial projects they had bid on (and not too intelligently, in my opinion), they had under bid other companies to get the project. Then proceeded to up the hours everyone had to work to get the project done by deadline. The workers were promised 'comp' time or 'overtime', the workers choice, but both failed to materialize and then the company said they were stopping that practice, because it cut into their 'profits' for any given project. Any corners that could be cut to barely pass the Building inspection were done, everything was done 'quick and dirty'.

Well, the guys accepted the excuses and continued to work themslves into the ground, if anyone complained they were told they could be replaced in a snap, fired on the spot. I don't take lightly to this type of management, and I contacted the Wage and Labor board and also keep track of hubby's hours and paystubs. I got affidavidits from guys who had been fired for speaking up, or who had gotten sick(they worked outside in freezing conditions without breaks, and were told to eat lunch while they worked). And yes the W&LBoard did somethng about it. The company was told if an employee worked over 8 hours in a day, over over 40 ours in a week, it was overtime and HAD TO BE PAID AS SUCH, 'time and half'. And that 'comp time' did not substitute for 'overtime'.

It drove the company out of business, but if they had treated their employees better and had bid their projects intelligently, the companies crediability and reputation would not have gone down the tubes.....so somethng can be done about this kind of treatment, I wouldn't let my husband kill himself for this kind of crap. I rather see him happy and healthy and be out of a job, but we found there's always a job somewhere you can do... edited for typos

Message edited on: 11/17/2004 19:16

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