emperorvinayak
New member
What is the name of your state? Maryland
Hello all,
Bit of a complicated situation. My wife works full time (52 hours a week) at a place where she is required to spend the night at a house. She is allowed to sleep and usually spends the night on a couch. At no point during the night can she leave the house.
Recently, the employer switched her from salaried to hourly. No notice of this change was given. Her original offer letter has the yearly salary printed on it, and no mention of a pay rate is given. This has affected any vacation time she takes because the "overtime" doesn't kick in, resulting in getting paid less whenever she takes time off. Her status has also been changed from full-time to part-time (despite working 52 hours a week) without any notice either. This was discovered only after visiting the time-sheet website they have. She has sent HR several emails asking about this situation but they have stopped responding to any questions. Is there anything to be done about this? Is it legal for them to change the status of their employees at whim?
Now the second issue: bedbugs. (please let me know if this needs to be posted separately somewhere else) There has been a bedbug infestation at one of the houses she is stationed at. The house she spends the night at has other "clients" of the company she needs to watch over. The infestation was found and reported by other people but none of this was communicated to her. She has been suffering from several bites and quite possibly bringing the bugs home as well (I hope not!).
This is not the first time an infestation has occurred. When this happened before, she had to actually go to the hospital because of how bad her reaction to the bug bites was (it looked like her back was pelted). She was forced to take "sick time" (thankfully, she is covered under my health insurance). Is there anything we can do about this situation? With the pay changes, if she has to go to the hospital again, she will be forced to take sick time and get paid less as a consequence. Is there anything we can do in case the bugs were taken home? The doctor she visited recommended that she not sleep anywhere there might be bedbugs anymore because escalating immune response can actually put her into anaphylactic shock.
Thank you.
Hello all,
Bit of a complicated situation. My wife works full time (52 hours a week) at a place where she is required to spend the night at a house. She is allowed to sleep and usually spends the night on a couch. At no point during the night can she leave the house.
Recently, the employer switched her from salaried to hourly. No notice of this change was given. Her original offer letter has the yearly salary printed on it, and no mention of a pay rate is given. This has affected any vacation time she takes because the "overtime" doesn't kick in, resulting in getting paid less whenever she takes time off. Her status has also been changed from full-time to part-time (despite working 52 hours a week) without any notice either. This was discovered only after visiting the time-sheet website they have. She has sent HR several emails asking about this situation but they have stopped responding to any questions. Is there anything to be done about this? Is it legal for them to change the status of their employees at whim?
Now the second issue: bedbugs. (please let me know if this needs to be posted separately somewhere else) There has been a bedbug infestation at one of the houses she is stationed at. The house she spends the night at has other "clients" of the company she needs to watch over. The infestation was found and reported by other people but none of this was communicated to her. She has been suffering from several bites and quite possibly bringing the bugs home as well (I hope not!).
This is not the first time an infestation has occurred. When this happened before, she had to actually go to the hospital because of how bad her reaction to the bug bites was (it looked like her back was pelted). She was forced to take "sick time" (thankfully, she is covered under my health insurance). Is there anything we can do about this situation? With the pay changes, if she has to go to the hospital again, she will be forced to take sick time and get paid less as a consequence. Is there anything we can do in case the bugs were taken home? The doctor she visited recommended that she not sleep anywhere there might be bedbugs anymore because escalating immune response can actually put her into anaphylactic shock.
Thank you.