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Threats of withholding pay and not paying overtime.

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Sshadow

New member
What is the name of your state? Alabama

We have reached our wits end with what is going on with our current manager. He has been our manager for a few years now but recently things have started to really go downhill. We are just a small town grocery store and we all do the best we can as a team to keep things going however he has recently made some threats that don't seem entirely legal to me. I have been looking around and this seemed like a great place to ask for advice about them.

#1. He has threatened that if we get any overtime even though it is documented on our time cards we will not be paid for it

#2. Myself and another lady that covers my nights off often have young people working under us. He flat out told us that if they do not do things correctly he would make us come in on "our own time" to fix it.

#3. Not entirely related but about a year ago I took a counterfeit check and now he is threatening to take it from my pay. Can he do that?

I know that's several things for one thread but I just wanted to see if any of this may give us something to call him out on. I really appreciate any advice here.
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
1.) Not legal. If you work overtime you MUST be paid for it. That is Federal law.
2.) Not legal. There are no circumstances when you can be required to work without pay.
3.) Because of the state you are in, this one may be legal, up to a point.It would be illegal in many states; however, Alabama has no wage and hour laws of its own; it relies on Federal law. Federal law does not implicitly prohibit this. It cannot, however, take you below minimum wage times hours worked.

The above applies assuming that you are non-exempt employees, but from what you have posted that seems likely.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
1.) Not legal. If you work overtime you MUST be paid for it. That is Federal law.
2.) Not legal. There are no circumstances when you can be required to work without pay.
3.) Because of the state you are in, this one may be legal, up to a point.It would be illegal in many states; however, Alabama has no wage and hour laws of its own; it relies on Federal law. Federal law does not implicitly prohibit this. It cannot, however, take you below minimum wage times hours worked.

The above applies assuming that you are non-exempt employees, but from what you have posted that seems likely.
Its also possible that he won't really try to make good on those threats. It almost sounds to me like he is under some extra stress for some reason and is lashing out. As a manager he should know better.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Agreed; just because he makes the threats doesn't mean he'll follow through.

But if he does, OP, those are the answers.
 

xylene

Senior Member
In regards to point 1, while an employer cannot without overtime pay for for hours actually worked, an employer does have the right to 'ban' overtime and expect an employees to clock (and obviously cease work) such that overtime hours are not incurred. That responsibilty of making sure of time can be expected of the employee. If you were willfully incurring OT when told not to that could even be disacharge for cause depending on specifics.

The degree to which that conflicts with work/management expectations or just situational reality.. that's something to talk about because they have to pay OT for OT time and they can't make you work for free either
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
xylene is correct that an employer can refuse to allow overtime to be worked, and that working it anyway is cause for termination. However, it does not change the fact that even in that case, the overtime must still be paid, and that you cannot be required to work for free. Xylene did address those points but just for emphasis/clarity.
 

Sshadow

New member
Thank you all for your answers. That I think has given me what I need if he does indeed "lash out again". I understand the stress that may be above him but this still isn't a corporate environment and I don't get why he flipped this switch. The overtime pay applied to a few of us as we can't just clock out and say bye. Myself and another are closers so us getting out and off the clock depends on several factors.
 

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