Associated Estates Realty ripoff Unfair labor practices, Slave Labor, Employees not paid Richmond Heights Ohio
I am an employee at one of the buildings that Associated Estates Realty owns.
Associated estates requires that their employees work overtime and does not compensate for the hours!
Associated Estates requires that their employees be on-call and refuses to compensate for hours!
Company Policy is NO OVERTIME ALLOWED. The company says they pay comp time but refuse to give comp time because they cant keep employees and are short staffed! Requiring comp time in lew of OT is against the law! It violates the the FLSA!
Points to consider:
1. This procedure is NOT in the employee handbook. The handbook states that OT will be paid to any hourly employee over 40 hours a week.
2. Employees are not told this until they have racked up OT that they wont be paid for. Then when they question it, they are told they are SOL because the company does not pay OT. The hours are lost to them.
3. Due to being understaffed, comp time is refused. You just worked all your OT for free!
4. Your job is threatened if you refuse to go oncall because you dont work for free.
5. You will lose your job if you try to contact the Wage and Hour administration.
Employees are owed on average of 20-30 hours per month of OT that they will not be compensated for while the investors get fat with their big profits.
Fact Sheet #23: OVERTIME PAY REQUIREMENTS OF THE FLSA
"Unless specifically exempted, employees covered by the Act must receive overtime pay for hours worked in excess of 40 in a work week at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay."
"Overtime Pay May Not Be Waived: The overtime requirement may not be waived by agreement between the employer and employees. An agreement that only 8 hours a day or only 40 hours a week will be counted as working time also fails the test of FLSA compliance. An announcement by the employer that no overtime work will be permitted, or that overtime work will not be paid for unless authorized in advance, also will not impair the employees right to compensation for compensable overtime hours that are worked."
"Sometimes employers will try to change the days an employee works in a week to try to avoid paying overtime to that employee. This is also prohibited under the Fair Labor Standards Act."
I am writing this report in hopes that some other employees of Associated Estates will respond. I am only one but know this is a common practice accross the Nation with this company.
Human Resources came to visit our building and confirmed that it is the practice of the company not to pay overtime under any circumstances.
I am a family man. I have kids to feed and rent to pay. Ive been unemployed and dont want to go back there. I am forced to work for free if I want to keep my job.
Class Action Law Suite anyone?
Employee
Suburban, Ohio
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Tim
Valparaiso,Indiana,
U.S.A.
A few pointers
#2Consumer Comment
Mon, January 12, 2004
Ask yourself these questions:
1) Are you an hourly employee?
2) Are you actually working in excess of 40 hours per week? (time spent on call does not count).
3) Does this company employ more than twenty five people?
If the answers to all of these questions is yes, they should be compensating you for the overtime.
If you are a salaried employee you are not covered by the FLSA. If you are not working over 40 hours per week you are not entitled to overtime compensation. For example, if you work four ten hour days you do not get overtime for the excess of eight hours daily.
Also, some employers are exempt from the statute based on the size or nature of their business (businesses exempt by virtue of their nature are usually agricultural).
If, in light of the above, you still feel that you are not receiving pay for your overtime, you should pursue what is due to you. A good place to start would be to acquire documents (copies of time cards, and check stubs would work great if you are paid weekly, but bi-weekly check stubs ca be problematic if you work overtime one week and not the next) proving past hours worked and compensation.
The only problem is that if you are not on a contract specifying a certain length of employment, and you pursue an action to be compensated for overtime, they can pretty much show you the door without any consequences.