All that said, it is general rule (which may not apply in this instance), that without an employment contract specifying termination only for cause -- the usual way to get this is through a union, but it is not the only way -- the boss can fire an employee for any reason or none, as long as that reason is not specifically forbidden by law (such as racial discrimination). This is called employment at will.
At the same time there wage and hour laws limiting the amount of time an employee can be made to work -- these laws apply to many employees under the federal FLSA and many state laws, but there area lot of exceptions. Moreover, as a general rule, which may not apply here, you can't contract around the law -- they can't, for example, make you waive your right to non-racially discriminatory employment practices, least of all as a condition of continued employment or being hired.
If there is a union involved, whether the workers are actually represented or not, there are lots of further issues. Is there a collective bargaining agreement in place? What does it say? What you say suggests there is no union actually representing the workers, but some unions might be supine enough to let this happen.
Are any of the workers engaged in any kind of concerted action regarding the terms or condition of their employment? As Jerry said, the law may offer certain protection to even non-unionized workers who do this, but how much protection is questionable.
All of these arew issues to raise with a locally licensed labor and employment lawyer to whom you tell the full facts of the case.
jks, esq. None of the above constitutes legal advice.
--- Jerry Monaco <monacojerry at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) Any lawyer giving actual legal advice over a list
> serve could be
> violating ethical rules or leaving herself open to a
> law suit.
> 2) Much of this depends on the locality. So the
> best advice I can give
> anyone is go see a local attorney that specializes
> in employee-side
> employment law. Ask the local National Lawyer Guild
> for a reference list or
> some other left lawyer organization or go to
> findlaw.com and browse around.
> You mention that this is at a university. Does the
> university have a law
> school? If there is a law school at the University,
> then there are bound to
> be free clinics, and liberal law professors, and
> even one or two left
> student organizations. They may be able to help you
> or to refer you to
> someone who can help.
>
> 3) There is simply not enough in your fact pattern
> for me to tell whether
> what happened is on the edge of legality or not.
> For instance, if the
> workers were to form an organization or complain of
> working conditions, it
> is an unfair labor practice to fire such workers for
> their complaints. But
> these federal labor laws have very little bite to
> them and largely go
> unenforced. The "contract" the workers signed may
> or may not be binding
> depending on very particular circumstances that vary
> widely from
> state-to-state.
>
> 4) One of the reasons that even the most corrupt
> union is better than no
> union at all, is that such sign or resign papers, or
> work or walk overtime
> rules, usually are weeded out in the course of
> contract negotiations. In
> short, often the only protection a worker has is a
> union. (Unfortunately,
> we know the problem with unions.) So is there a
> local worker's rights
> organization, open minded union, (Justice for
> Janitors), local employees
> rights law firm or nonprofit legal org, etc. that
> these workers can be sent
> to for advice?
>
> Jerry
>
> On 4/29/06, Tommy Kelly <tkelly15450 at charter.net>
> 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?
> > ___________________________________
> >
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Jerry Monaco's Philosophy, Politics, Culture Weblog
> is
> Shandean Postscripts to Politics, Philosophy, and
> Culture
> http://monacojerry.livejournal.com/
>
> His fiction, poetry, weblog is
> Hopeful Monsters: Fiction, Poetry, Memories
> http://www.livejournal.com/users/jerrymonaco/
>
> Notes, Quotes, Images - From some of my reading and
> browsing
> http://www.livejournal.com/community/jerry_quotes/
> > ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com