excessive exempt employee overtime

[I am disgusted]

I have worked in excess of 171 hours of overtime since Febuary of this year. Yes, I am an exempt employee and I am aware that by excepting exempt employee status I have become a slave to the company; however, how can an employer force you to use vacation time to cover time off when in a two week period you have enough OT to cover the requested day or halfday? It seems to me that there must be a law pertaining to forcing exempt employees to take vacation time to cover Doctor appointments and other miscelaneous time off. I am not saying I should be able to take two consecutive days off however if I have worked 44 hours in a four day period and want to take a day off I should not have to put in for eight hours of vacation to bring my total work week hours to 52. Yes I know one of my options is to quit; however, I am hoping for another alternative.
CB, Michigan

 

[lawrat]

I am a law school graduate. What I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

This is something that probably should be covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Have you read the material under Employment Labor law at freeadvice.com's home page? Try there. Also, you may want to contact the EEOC (equal employment opportunity commission) or call your local city hall and ask for a consumer organization offered within the county that deals with such employment law issues.

I think the whole point behind exempt status is to maintain a base salary, without having to be subjected to hourly punch ins and outs. A lot of companies who have salaried exempt employees do not compensate for overtime (by saying giving extra bonuses or money equivalents) but do give what is generally known as "complimentary time" or comp time.

Ask an employment labor law attorney at attorneypages.com (most initial consultations are free).

Hope this helps.