Question about Labor Laws

[JLaw]

Does anyone know if the state or federal labor laws allow (or prohibit) an employer from altering your normal work schedule to avoid paying overtime?

Exact circumstance: Normal work schedule is 8:00-16:30, Mon-Fri. Altered work schedule would be for on-call work, shift from 11:30-20:00 Mon-Fri, once every 6-8 weeks. The purpose given is to lower overtime costs to the company.

I know it's a vague description, I can provide more details if needed.

I'm assuming there is no such law, however I have heard a few fellow employees mention they thought a law existed. The gray area is can an employer change your schedule for 7 days every few months and call it your new "normal work schedule"?

A link to the law or article number would be helpful if anyone knows the answer, allowed or prohibited.

JLaw

[JLaw]

Hmmm, maybe I posted this too soon. Might have found the answer here...

http://webapps.dol.gov/dolfaq/go-dol-fa ... &topicid=1

From U.S. D.o.L. website

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Question: When can an employee’s scheduled hours of work be changed?

Answer: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has no provisions regarding the scheduling of employees, with the exception of certain child labor provisions. Therefore, an employer may change an employee's work hours without giving prior notice or obtaining the employee's consent (unless otherwise subject to a prior agreement between the employer and employee or the employee's representative).

JLaw

[VoiceofReason]

You can get some info at http://www.nlrb.gov/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Our union contract forbids excessively changing work schedules to avoid paying overtime but then everyone knows unions are the cause of all the problems in the country and no one needs them.

[JLaw]

Actually, we are not union employees. Not trying to make trouble either. Just trying to make sure we are not being taken advantage of.

Point of the question is simply this. Our schedule will be changed, we will be working an evening shift instead of receiving overtime for running after hours calls. This will affect our paycheck. A great majority of employees here have families at home with children in school. Working an evening shift reduces the amount of time we get to spend with our children, and there is no benefit (financial or otherwise) offered as compensation. Our employee handbook states that our work schedule is from 08:00-16:30, Mon-Fri, and all time worked past 40 hours is paid at mandated O/T rates. For these reasons, I just wanted to verify that we aren't being taken advantage of.

I'm not crying about it or giving any sob stories, I've got a good job and will not resign my position over this. If the employer is entitled to change our schedule to avoid paying overtime then so be it, life goes on.

JLaw

[Oldgringo]

A whole lot of people, among whom are my degreed stepson with two small sons, don't have any job. Y'all have any openings on any shift?

[marksiwel]

Actually, we are not union employees. Not trying to make trouble either. Just trying to make sure we are not being taken advantage of.

Point of the question is simply this. Our schedule will be changed, we will be working an evening shift instead of receiving overtime for running after hours calls. This will affect our paycheck. A great majority of employees here have families at home with children in school. Working an evening shift reduces the amount of time we get to spend with our children, and there is no benefit (financial or otherwise) offered as compensation. Our employee handbook states that our work schedule is from 08:00-16:30, Mon-Fri, and all time worked past 40 hours is paid at mandated O/T rates. For these reasons, I just wanted to verify that we aren't being taken advantage of.

I'm not crying about it or giving any sob stories, I've got a good job and will not resign my position over this. If the employer is entitled to change our schedule to avoid paying overtime then so be it, life goes on.

JLaw

So do you have to STAY at work incase you are "on Call" or can you go home. I'm alittle confused. Do you clock in?

[JLaw]

A whole lot of people, among whom are my degreed stepson with two small sons, don't have any job. Y'all have any openings on any shift?

Actually we are looking for one electrician with an apprentice licsense. Pretty low paying job though.

JLaw

[JLaw]

So do you have to STAY at work incase you are "on Call" or can you go home. I'm alittle confused. Do you clock in?

When you are on-call you go home after your 8 hr regular work day, and are dispatched to emergencies from there. Anyone familiar with the refrigeration business should know the on-call routine. I'm really only looking to see if a company is allowed or disallowed to alter a work schedule with the sole purpose of reducing overtime costs.

Before: I'd work in the stores from 08:00-16:30, then go home for the evening, 5 days a week. When an emergency call came between 16:30-08:00 in I'd be dispatched to run the call, then return home after running the call if there were no more emergencies. Saturday and Sunday are busy days, all emergency service all O/T. 60 hours a week is a normal on call week, 70-80 hours a week happens often.

After: Everyone not on call works 08:00-16:30, anyone on-call works in the stores from 11:30-20:00, then returns home. We'd be dispatched on any emergency service from 20:00-08:00, and return home after completing the call if no other calls are hanging.

Any clearer? If not I'll have to think really hard to re-word it, I'll confess I'm not a good explainer'er.

JLaw

[Drewthetexan]

I was a disgruntled employee once at a large retail chain (imagine that!). I looked into labor laws to see if I could find any dirt. Labor in Texas is pretty unregulated it seems compared to many other states. The only thing I remember finding was that an employer cannot schedule two 8-hour shifts closer than 8 hours apart, with some other if's & and's thrown in there.

One of the practices was to arrange the work week from Sunday at midnight to the following Saturday. Because weekends were the busiest time, any potential or actual overtime was cut at midnight, which really irked us when we had to stay past to continue cleaning, sometimes until 3 or 4 in the morning. Schedules were then adjusted during the week when it was slower and easier to manage the workload with fewer employees on duty. Great for business, but poor for morale. In the long run, I think practices like this unmeasurably hurt the bottom line.

[chabouk]

If you're not going over 40 without being paid OT, you don't have a beef just because your schedule is changed. The world is full of people who don't have the luxury of working 0800-1630 with weekends off. I have 18 years seniority in a union workplace, and I still have to take my turn working graveyard (only another month until I get off it!), and I'm happy to get one weekend day off (I try to keep Friday/Saturday off, and have pretty good luck with that). Oh, and I can have my schedule changed with as little as two hours' notice.

Any of those on-call runs you make between 2000-0800 should be paid at the OT rate from the time you're called until you complete the call. Or, they can cut your week short to compensate, so you don't go over 40.

Some important terminology for you: "waiting to engage", isn't compensable time, but "engaged to wait" is. If you can go where you want and do what you want, as long as it doesn't interfere with your ability to respond (like drinking, being too far away, etc.), your on-call time doesn't have to be paid. But if they require you to be at a certain place or do certain things while waiting for that call, you are "engaged to wait" and must be paid for that time.

[jimlongley]

I was fired from a recent job because I broke my finger on the job and put in for Workman's Comp - all I have to do is prove it.

My schedule at Home Depot is posted about 2.5 weeks in advance and the variance from day to day is awful. Monday and Tuesday this week I worked 0900 - 1800, yesterday and today, I work 1200 to 2100, tomorrow is my Saturday, and Saturday is my Sunday, and I work 0800 to 1700 Sunday. And I had to ask for Saturday to be assigned so I could make it to the TSRA convention, getting Friday off would be a good benefit if my bride and I didn't have a minor conflict that prevents us from going Friday night.

Next week my schedule is different, and the week after that, different still, and after that, we won't know until next Wednesday or Thursday.

[ninemm]

Does anyone know if the state or federal labor laws allow (or prohibit) an employer from altering your normal work schedule to avoid paying overtime?

Exact circumstance: Normal work schedule is 8:00-16:30, Mon-Fri. Altered work schedule would be for on-call work, shift from 11:30-20:00 Mon-Fri, once every 6-8 weeks. The purpose given is to lower overtime costs to the company.

I know it's a vague description, I can provide more details if needed.

I'm assuming there is no such law, however I have heard a few fellow employees mention they thought a law existed. The gray area is can an employer change your schedule for 7 days every few months and call it your new "normal work schedule"?

A link to the law or article number would be helpful if anyone knows the answer, allowed or prohibited.

JLaw

As long as you're getting a week's notice of the schedule change, I can't see where you have much of a complaint other than the fact that your company may not have done it in the past. Many manufacturing and service companies run multiple shifts. In the case of service businesses which also do new installations, secondary shifts are not usually as productive since people working the alternate shifts are not able to do the company's primary work (new installations) and just sit around and wait for service work. Then again, working a regular shift and then handling service calls on O/T also can affect productivity and safety as fatigue enters into the equation. It's a fine balance between loss of productivity and safety and managing the bottom line by having shift work. It is not always just about avoiding overtime payments. That is, it's not all win-win for the employer, either. I feel sure your company has attempted to evaluate this in making their decision. If they didn't, they are likely in for a surprise.

[JLaw]

Thanks to all the good responses. After quite a long meeting with the higher-ups today, it was determined that the departments budget is under fire, and O/T reduction via shift work is the biggest savings we can have on the budget right now. A big change from the past, but we'll get used to it. Oh well, as stated earlier, life goes on and we still have a job.

As far as Tx Labor laws, after researching, I did find out pretty much what Drewthetexan said, labor laws don't cover much.

Didn't mean to light any fires, my apologies.

JLaw