[lbo-talk] Is this legal?

[info at pulpculture.org]

At 03:24 PM 4/29/2006, Tommy Kelly wrote:
>I wanted to write this anonymously, but I could not figure out how:
>
>Lets say someone works as a Custodial Services at certain well known 
>university.  Now lets say the higher up have indicated to the workers that 
>there will be 2 weeks, in 2 separate months, were the employees will have 
>to work for 12 hours a day, for 2 weeks straight (14 days with no days 
>off).  Also lets say the higher up made the workers sign a paper saying 
>they know the 2 week straight is "mandatory" and if someone choices not to 
>comply, they will be out of a job.  Though the starting pay for this 
>branch of custodial services is $7.50 and only goes up to around $12.00; a 
>majority of the workers are women with kids, and cannot afford to speak 
>up.  Question: is it not illegal to make workers go 14 days straight?

not a lawyer either but I know you're in a southern state so it's unlikely 
you have state laws that are favorable to employees.

1. as jordan said, as long as an employer pays you for the time at 
time-and-a-half it's legal. They have to provide breaks as well. even if 
they tried to make you or got you to sign a contract saying you'd take 
less, I think they can be prosecuted for failing to pay the time-and-a-half 
because it is their job to uphold those Wage and Labor laws, not your job 
to know what they are and refuse to sign the contract.

2. Given that they're asking you to sign something, it seems like legal ass 
covering just to make sure they don't even have to think about the hint of 
a lawsuit. It's also a way to threaten your asses by reminding you who's 
boss. And, it's also a way to get psychological buy in. 10 days into it, if 
someone gets sick of the ridiculous hours, they'll be less like to whine or 
call in sick because they remembered they 'voluntarily' signed a contract.

You can call the Dept of Labor and they are actually very helpful on the 
phone about a lot of this stuff. I'm sure they can tell you for sure, 
without having to get an attorney to know. E.g., they explained to me that 
I was screwed b/c I was the only employee, thus labor laws didn't apply to 
me. Everyone else was family or a contractor, so I was SOL.