More employee abuse

[Crazy Dave]

Two friends of mine who work for an engineering firm here in my town were forced to take a very large pay cuts a year and a half ago. It started when half of the employees were let go and the ones that were lucky :sarcasm: enough to stay on were made to take a 10% hourly pay cut and then go from hourly to salary based on 32 hours a week instead of 40. Say you made $20 an hour, with 40 hours you made $800 a week plus overtime. Now you only make $576 salary a week and that's all you make.

A year and a half later business has picked up a lot but not their salaries or any new employees. The company now has them working six days a week at 48 hours plus but won't do any new hiring and has pretty much told everyone that their current salary won't be increased any time soon. And if they don't like it they can leave.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Even though they're considered salary employees and don't have to get paid overtime, the company still docks them if they take any time off during the week.

[Sherman A1]

1. I think they might consider a complaint

to their State division of wage & hour and the NLRB.

At the very least they should explore their options.

[Crazy Dave]

3. I've recommended that and there's an attorney I know who specializes in these cases but....

Everyone there is too scared to do anything.

[Sherman A1]

6. Encourage them to "explore" their options

there is no hurry, but by gaining knowledge of what they can and cannot do they may become emboldened enough to take action. Also encourage them to start documenting everything, that too requires no immediate confrontation, but comes under the heading of both laying the groundwork for a complaint and serves as CYA for them.

[DJ13]

2. My wife's employer froze pay (hourly) 2 years ago

Despite spending a fortune on building upgrades they still arent giving any raises this year either.

[Crazy Dave]

4. My old boss built a new home for pennies on the dollar literally

He used to brag about how he was bleeding all the sub-contractors to death just so they could break even. No surprise to us the way we were being treated. We were told that we had to show up every day for work but would only get paid if there was work. And we weren't allowed to go home early if we finished all our work either. Me, I heard the "if you don't like it quit" one too many times and walked out two weeks ago.

[littlewolf]

5. the company I work for froze pay about 2 years ago also

last year the gave everyone who's employment anniversary was from Jan - Jun their COLA ...
and this year Jul - Dec will get theirs ... and maybe even a raise .... not holding my breath ...
if it happens good .... but not expecting it ....