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Employer Lying to me about Overtime Laws

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TigerD

Senior Member
I find it interesting that while refusal to pay for overtime is blatantly illegal under both Federal and state law, DC is finding the OP at fault for wanting what the law guarantees him.
Not what I said at all.

DC
 


TigerD

Senior Member
I very much so think you've gotten the wrong impression of me. I do not 'seek to work the system'


Not sit around and stress once i'm home because i'm constantly being taken advantage of... I finally had reached my breaking point with the previous employer, just as was many others who were being abused, but weren't willing to step up and say something. '

And when i say 'employers around here' I also include word of mouth spread by others who do not work in the same establishment as I.

(Makes me question the legitimacy of businesses)
No, I don't think I have the wrong measure of you at all.

DC
 

commentator

Senior Member
My input is that while "lawsuits are public record" filing a complaint with the state DOL or federal DOL if your state didn't have one, which your state does, is not a lawsuit. In fact, they don't even come to an employer and said, "Your employee Joe Blow filed a complaint that you weren't paying overtime correctly. We want to look at your books." They just come in and investigate.

If you are due overtime, if the DOL guys find stuff they're doing wrong, they'll have to pay it, for you and any other employees that can be found they've also paid incorrectly. If they even sort of suspect it's you who called the DOL, of course, the employer may legally terminate you. So what? It sounds like they're milking their employees dry and not a very good place to be. In the type of work you're doing, there are a great number of these people who think our few and rather feeble employment and wage and hour laws are to be beaten if possible. It is a good idea for an employee to know what is and is not legal.

I surely do not see how this would affect your future employment. I don't see how it would come up in an interview unless the interviewee got way off topic, and though it's not illegal to say negative things about a former employee in providing references, I think as an employer I would certainly think more than once about refusing to hire someone simply because they wanted to be paid legally and refused to tolerate a situation where an employer was trying to dodge that.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
If they even sort of suspect it's you who called the DOL, of course, the employer may legally terminate you.

Not legally they can't. Even if they drum up some kind of "legal" reason to put on paper, firing an employee who reports illegal or suspected illegal activity to the appropriate regulatory agency is, in fact, a wrongful term.

That's not to say it can always be proven, granted, but a firing done for, say, poor performance when it is *really* because of a report to the DOL is just as illegal as one that is done outright for the report to the DOL.
 

TigerD

Senior Member
If they even sort of suspect it's you who called the DOL, of course, the employer may legally terminate you.

Not legally they can't. Even if they drum up some kind of "legal" reason to put on paper, firing an employee who reports illegal or suspected illegal activity to the appropriate regulatory agency is, in fact, a wrongful term.

That's not to say it can always be proven, granted, but a firing done for, say, poor performance when it is *really* because of a report to the DOL is just as illegal as one that is done outright for the report to the DOL.
If you can't come up with a legal reason to fire a troublemaker, you shouldn't be in management.

DC
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
My point being that the only trouble he's making is wanting to be paid according to law. That is NOT a valid reason to term someone.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Read every word of it, my friend, and clearly you're seeing something in it that I'm not.
 

Stephen1

Member
Employer lying? Not necessarily.
Lying means that the employer believes that what he is saying is wrong. Perhaps he believes it. He is still wrong but not lying. For example, if I were a member of the Flat-Earth Society and said to you "the earth is round", I would be lying (because that is not what I believe). If I said the earth is flat then I would not be lying, just wrong.

I raise this point because when you go to communicate with your employer, if you accuse him of lying then he will automatically be defensive. If you want to get somewhere with him, then don't accuse him of lying.
 

davew128

Senior Member
Employer lying? Not necessarily.
Lying means that the employer believes that what he is saying is wrong. Perhaps he believes it. He is still wrong but not lying. For example, if I were a member of the Flat-Earth Society and said to you "the earth is round", I would be lying (because that is not what I believe). If I said the earth is flat then I would not be lying, just wrong.
George Costanza likes this. davew128 does not.
 

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