Full question:
Thank you, I currently work for a field service company. We were recently acquired in 12/ 2009. We have been on board 16 months and have been told no raises. Many of us have not had a raise since 2005 and many are 55 years old plus. The new thing now is Comp time. They want us to take comp time when we work overtime. It's expected. They tell us, if we don't buy into doing comp time, they will find other ways to fix the OT issues. Most of us take it as they will lay us off. One manager expects us to change to shift work, and work what would be OT as a normal shift. They are getting upset at us since most of the work we do is 7 by 24 contracts, and we have no choice but to take the service call. Also, the comp time must be taken within the pay period, you can't select when you would like to take the comp time, so it's really no benefit to us. When we work 3 hours OT we are allowed only 3 hours comp time off instead of 4.5 hours off.We don't want to loose our jobs, but we don't believe management is playing fair with us.I guess the question is, Is this legal and what rights do we have as employee's if they lay us off over OT or refuse to take Comp time in lieu of OT. I appreciate your time. Nobody wants to loose their job between 59 and 62, and I think we are being taken advantage of through fear.
- Category: Employment
- Subcategory: Hours
- Date:
- State: New Jersey
Answer:
The answer will depend on whether it is a private or government emloyer and whether you are an exempt status employee. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), nonexempt employees must be paid overtime at time and a half their regular rate of pay for hours worked in excess of 40 hours per week.
Normally, compensatory time off cannot be substituted for overtime pay according to the FLSA, except in public employment and for 14-day, 80-hour work periods allowed for employees of hospital or residential care facilities. According to the FLSA, overtime pay must be calculated on the basis of each workweek, the overtime earnings must be paid by cash or negotiable instrument, such as a check, and the overtime earnings must be paid promptly, which means on the regular payday for the period during which the overtime hours were worked.
Private sector employers are not allowed to grant nonexempt employees equal time off for the overtime hours they work. For example, if an employee works 10 hours of overtime, giving that person 10 hours off the following week would not be in accordance with the law. However, an employer is allowed to give time off in lieu of overtime at a rate of not less than 1 ½ hours for each hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required, within the same pay period. So in this example, the employee could be given 15 hours of compensatory time off the following week, within a two-week pay period.
This content is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Legal statutes mentioned reflect the law at the time the content was written and may no longer be current. Always verify the latest version of the law before relying on it.
