The Wal-Mart Problem

[Trilby]

richlevy, i bow to your entire post, above. You really ARE the bee king!

You all know I go to a university around here (a rather, ahem, lame one, but! one nonetheless!) you should hear the kids. Pro-life, Anti-AssistedSuicide, Pro-Bush, etc. I worry. I worry.

Then I think: eh, what do twenty-somethings know? And then I feel better.

[Trilby]

ah, you girls...

I've been (un)happily employed for years and years. If you worked forty, you pulled enough weight to have insurance. If they could stick thirty-eight hours to you, they could claim you were part-time (with the exception of folks they WANTED RE:nurses. As an RN, I could, and DID, work 36 hours/week and carry F/T bene's). Happens everywhere. That's not the Question, though. I am reasonably sure that there is a law about how many employees you have and how much/how many bene's you must cough up. Lots of stuff about this. gads.

[jinx]

Originally Posted by Brianna

Lots of stuff about this. gads.

Point me in the direction of it eh? I'm genuinely interested.

[Tonchi]

Originally Posted by Brianna

I've been (un)happily employed for years and years. If you worked forty, you pulled enough weight to have insurance. If they could stick thirty-eight hours to you, they could claim you were part-time (with the exception of folks they WANTED RE:nurses. As an RN, I could, and DID, work 36 hours/week and carry F/T bene's). Happens everywhere.

Marichiko and Brianna both mirror my experiences with IBM, a company every bit as manipulative as you can find but very aware of their legal issues. So aware that they called meetings to discuss the hours-per-week/day with us every time they were getting the shaft ready. We were told that according to law only a regularly scheduled 40 hpw made you a "full-time employee" and only then could you have benefits. You couldn't just get them by working a scheduled 20 hour week and an equal amount of "overtime". It was not until later that I discovered that did not include the special "consultant" status that they gave hourly employees who were so special that they needed extra persuasions (but none of that applied to me anyway since I was in sales support/administration). They see-sawed back and forth so many times about overtime being forbidden to overtime being compulsory that finally they solved the problem by making every administrative employee above a certain grade "exempt". That meant that no matter how many hours per day/week you worked over your scheduled 40, you got paid a flat rate (formerly that was just for management). This allowed them to legally work you into the ground without having to mess up their budget for salaries. 20 years later, they are in court facing a class action suit over non-payment of overtime But as far as benefits, those of us with the required 40 hours got all expenses paid for any psychiatric care needed to cope with the stress the company caused.

[jinx]

Tonchi, are you saying that IBM is being sued for not paying overtime to their salaried-exempt employees?

We were told that according to law only a regularly scheduled 40 hpw made you a "full-time employee"

I've "heard" this too and was wondering if it was true - it doesn't appear to be. I would have checked into it had it affected me, but I received full bennies with 35 hours at my last real job.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Tonchi

They see-sawed back and forth so many times about overtime being forbidden to overtime being compulsory that finally they solved the problem by making every administrative employee above a certain grade "exempt". That meant that no matter how many hours per day/week you worked over your scheduled 40, you got paid a flat rate (formerly that was just for management). This allowed them to legally work you into the ground without having to mess up their budget for salaries. 20 years later, they are in court facing a class action suit over non-payment of overtime But as far as benefits, those of us with the required 40 hours got all expenses paid for any psychiatric care needed to cope with the stress the company caused.

I don't know when the current rules went into effect, but according to the Dept of Labor the minimum for 'exempt' is $455 per week which works out to about $23.5K if you don't take vacations. That is above the poverty level for a family of four, placing someone in the 'working poor' category, especially if they have to pick up their own health care.

Administrative Exemption To qualify for the administrative employee exemption, all of the following tests must be met:

• The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis (as defined in the regulations) at a rate not less than $455 per week;
• The employee’s primary duty must be the performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers; and
• The employee’s primary duty includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgment with respect to matters of significance.

• That last item is open to a lot of interpretation.

[Badgerino]

I worked part time for my city's park department.
At that time part time meant that as a municipality they did not have to pay time and a half for overtime and there were weeks when I worked for 50 hours or more. Quite a deal for the city. They strung me along for 2 years, promising to put me on full time "next spring" or "next fall". Finally the union got it in their contract that after 180 days they would either hire the part timers onto full time or lay them off. No more stringing along. In spite of the city saying they had no money, I got hire that summer. And then surprise, surprise, they hired 4 guys after me. I quit after 4 years--the flat out most stupid thing I have ever done and that choice cost me tens of thousands of dollars in lost pay. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

P.S.,
Republicans' concern for life begins at conception and ends at birth.

[Trilby]

I think so much of it depends on who you're working for and how valuable they think you are to them. In the many hospitals around here it all depends on what STATUS you hired in as. If I was hired AS a part-time employee and they gave me 60 hrs/week, I'd get paid OT for anything over forty,but no benes. I was part time until I found an opening that gave me full time status.