Techies sue Universal Media Group for overtime pay

Unpaid overtime is a contentious issue for IT employees, who often wrangle with ill-tempered technology long after everyone else has punched the clock. Universal Media Group is the latest company to stir the ire of data center dwellers feeling short-changed. A group of UMG IT employees has filed a class action lawsuit alleging …

[heystoopid]

Simple solution

Simple solution really , just out source the entire department to India!

Oh , come to think of it , that might not be a good idea , as several major Indian Companies facing a massive shortage of skilled IT people , are currently out sourcing as well!

Still with the precedent set by the ever revolting staff at Electronic Arts , when management refused to give them time off for a seven day working week , when the contract said five and they were paid accordingly , they were sued for failing to pay them for the other two days !

Looks like Universal has no legal legs to stand upon , given past judgements handed down in California!

But then again , given that since 2000 the industry has been down sizing an average of 16% per annum , due to the continue attempt to sell poor taste universal music that the limited buying public in all countries is avoiding like the black plague! , time is of the essence for all of the remaining employees before the final implosion occurs !

Let the terminal meltdown continue unabated , for the demise of Universal Music would be a good thing for all within the industry!

[Anonymous Coward]

is it so hard to understand hard work needs to be compensated?

These companies are making sooo much $$$. Why can't they "just" pay their employees what they're worth? They provide a precentage of the profits...Pay them that amount.

[Anonymous Coward]

Another option

Just leave California and their overly protectionist laws. Go to almost any other state and you will find a more business friendly environment. Come down south. We'll work for less than it costs to employ people in CA and won't complain about a little extra white collar overtime. If you have blue collar jobs we'll take your jobs as well. Just ask all those car companies that have left the north with their union labor to come south where people tell the union they don't need representation.

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem?

Endemic abuse of employies?

The answer? Mandetory overtime.

I think everyone should push for laws saying... If you work over x hours, and more than your contracted hours +30 mins per day (To alow for those who turn up early) you have to be paid overtime. I have the fact that I can work hard all day, and then be seen as a slaker because I feel that the company is paying me to do my job whilst im at work and if they dont employ enough staff, so I cant get everything done in that time, I should do overtime. If I dont work hard in work time then fire me, but as I am then dont expect me to cover there asses so that they can make more money with me doing the work.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Another Option

"Just leave California and their overly protectionist laws. Come down south."

California attracts talented people with its lifestyle and climate. What has "down south" got to offer other than swamps infested by racist banjo-pluckin' good-ole-boys whose family trees are a little, well, strange?

:-)

[Mike Arthur]

just see

how quickly the overtime gets paid if they all work 40 hours only...

no pay no work, simple...

[Dan]

IBM overtime

When I worked at IBM I got paid overtime for the work I was doing until my third line Manager realized how much overtime I was being paid. I was working from 9am to either 1am, 2am, or 3am everyday, often working saturdays and half day sundays as well. My contracted hours were 9am-5:30pm monday to friday, anything over that was paid overtime.

When they realized how much I was being paid they stopped paying me overtime but still expected me to put in the hours to complete the project I was working on. Which stupidly I did until I collapsed due to exhaustion and promptly told them to get stuffed if they thought I was doing those hours any longer.

They brought me up on a bogus disciplinary a fortnight after this so I well and truly told them to get stuffed and quit. To top this off, during my time at IBM I was sexually discriminated against twice, (Im a guy and yes we do get sexually discriminated against)........ so IBM screwing its employee's doesn't suprise me in the slightest !!!

[Simon Greenwood]

Hard work is compensated - in stock

The Californian culture offers stock as an incentive to keep working stupid hours. In some places that's good, in many it's just another pile of toilet paper. I did some work there for a major networking company whose name escapes me about ten years ago the staff did all hours as standard in return for their stock vesting. Then again said company was (and still is) a good investment and it was something to work for. I think most people in IT would accept that there is a degree of overtime or out of hours working built in but that there should be some kind of compensation down the line. If that's not the case then there's always a market for decent skills.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucky them!

In my last job, when server crashes happened, I could end up working a straight 32 hour shift (this happened on more than one occasion).

Paid overtime was out of the question, time-in-lieu was forbidden for someone of my "rank" and at 8am you were jumped on by people asking why wasn't the system fixed yet.

Add to that weekend and evening calls outside of hours, eg call at 11.30pm (on way back from pub) resulting in work until 1am and then the same person calling at 7am (on this occasion it was a problem with the wireless network in the hotel they were staying in). They refused to pay for out-of-hours support saying they didn't need it.

I think one of the largest problems with IT is that people assume it "just works" (thanks to Apple for that!) and don't realise how hard it can sometimes be to resurrect that server with all their emails on when they wouldn't fork out for the replicated mail server.

[Daniel]

Title

"California attracts talented people with its lifestyle and climate. What has "down south" got to offer other than swamps infested by racist banjo-pluckin' good-ole-boys whose family trees are a little, well, strange?"

Typical south bashing just because you don't know anything about the south you assume that the stereo types are true. It's almost like racism but acceptable. Sure we have some racism but in case you haven't looked outside of wonderland lately so does the rest of the country and the world. It's nasty and at least around here it seems to be getting better. Most of the people you will meet in the south really hate racism and we aren't afraid to tackle it head on unlike other parts of the country that prefer to just pretend it's a southern problem until the local "Arian" group decides to make a statement. But of course those are just "out of town southerners".

[Daniel]

@ Another Option

"California attracts talented people with its lifestyle and climate. What has "down south" got to offer "

In the IT sector the south has people who will work for about 60% to 80% of California wages doing exactly the same work and probably more. This isn't unique to IT. IT just happens to be the area I know.

Just to make things better the property prices are way less than half of California rates. Gas is cheaper. My morning commute from "the suburbs" is usually less than 30 minutes with "traffic". I'm happy for you if you like CA. I'm quite happy in the south and hope to see more companies come to their senses and move here where labor is cheap and employees are not afraid of a little work.

[Daniel]

@just see

"how quickly the overtime gets paid if they all work 40 hours only..."

Just see how quick the mortgage payment gets paid when the company moves to another state or completely out of the Unites States.

You might win in the short term but in the long term unless you own the company you are just a hired hand who can be replaced like any other tool. Probably faster if the tools are complex and expensive.

[Alan Parsons]

Yet another option

Work as a contractor, selling a service for a fee, based on time spent. Over the 8 years I've worked this way, nearly every office I've worked in has at least one or two permanent members of staff, putting in ridiculous hours on a 'salary' basis rather than hourly pay. Every one of these situations those people seem to believe that the large, bloated corp they work for will eventually recognise this Herculean effort and reward them with something of real value - a huge bonus or shares, or a promotion. Maybe I'm just really cynical, but every single instance of this I've encountered, those people have actually not been singled out or recognised in any way. Now it seems I'm not alone in my opinion that 'salary' translates as 'way to get you to do twice as much work for half the cost'. At the last client I contracted to several members of permanent staff turned down a promotion from "Associate" level to "VP" simply because ( associate pay + overtime ) > ( VP pay ) given the amount of overtime they had to work. The company's response? Deny overtime for associate level and offer half days in lieu instead. The staff's response? Start looking at the contract market where you can charge clients a fair fee based on skills and services provided and better still, demand payment for the ENTIRE time those services are provided.

[Law]

Easy solution.... again

Quit! Why work for a company that want's to rape you of your time and energy and is willing to go to court over it??

[Anonymous Coward]

Citizen Revolt

The problem of unpaid overtime is everywhere. It is the direct result of the demise of union representation and politicians, the lobbyists that support them and employers continual threat of "outsourcing".

The only reason that American workers so called "productivity" has risen so much is due to the fact that we are all guilt tripped and manipulated by company management into working longer for less pay.

There are some relatively straightforward solutions to this indentured servitude.

Everyone, everywhere, take all of your allotted sick time and vacation at the same time. If they won't "approve" your contractually allotted vacation, take the sick time and vice versa.

Start class action lawsuits against the various employers.

Refuse to buy or use the offending companies products or services.

If all else fails, I have long believed that it is time for a "Citizens Union", legally chartered to use all it's financial clout to represent the "special interests" of the everyday citizen over those of the corporate owned politicians who run this country and the rest of the world.

Shortly, it will become very obvious to manufacturers that the outsourcing/offshoring they have promulgated, is resulting in an inability of most average people to buy their products.

Here in Western New York State, the local auto dealers have had to close or consolidate their showrooms because fewer people can afford to buy their cars, not even those who manufacture them. This is happening all over the USA.

Xerox and Kodak in Rochester have long "mandated" unpaid overtime for so called "exempt employees" that work right on the same manufacturing lines with "hourly" workers. These exempt employees have greater responsibilities, and yet are paid as much as 1/3 less annually than the hourly people, and yet these exempt workers are in many cases doing similar work and have little to no supervisory authority.

I know of one case where a 28 year employee of Kodak was blackmailed by HR into having to work 10 to 12 hour days without overtime in China for almost 6 months. If he did not agree to do so, HR told him that they would not allow him to get the full value of his pension/buyout package.

These are only a few instances of a pandemic of harrassment and intimidation that occurs everyday in the manufacturing world.

You folks in the IT business are not the only ones suffering!

[Johan Bastiaansen]

one more easy solution

When the boss stops paying, I stop working.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: @ Another Option

I dunno, ask all the Yankee bastards that have moved down here and refuse to move back!

[Will Leamon]

Well Said I Say Well Said Sir!

'I dunno, ask all the Yankee bastards that have moved down here and refuse to move back!'

Plus all the California bubble bursters who couldn't afford to live there anymore.

[Will Leamon]

The South

What has "down south" got to offer...

How bout less than 2/3rds the pollution and congestion of Cali. How about a landscape littered with American and European history. Some of us like a little rain and snow as well.

Oh yeah and we're remarkably earthquake free here. Plus our Hip Hop isn't some hipster 'look at the monkey dance' racist shit like the West Side. Instead it's downright drunk and illiterate. But at least it's honest.

Actual African Americans live in the South in vast numbers. Have you ever been to ATL? You'd think if the West Coast was so luvvy dovey black people wouldn't have to fight so damn hard for decent roles in Hollywood.

It amazes me that the rest of the country/world is quite willing to believe that the South is exactly the same as it was in 1920. But then again I work in LA a part of the year and must admit that whole state has its head way too far up it's own ass.

But to get back on topic overtime laws are supposed to prevent people from being overworked which is a much bigger cultural problem in the states than this article, and the comments that follow, are willing to address.

[bobbles31]

Contracting

Couldn't agree more with the dude talking about contracting. The relationship between manager and contractor is far less like a master-slave relationship and more like a Customer-Supplier type arrangement. The customer can have whatever he wants, he just has to pay for it. The supplier can also charge whatever he likes, he just runs the risk of not getting renewed.

I also get more control over my Taxes, Pension and general benefits, I won't turn 65 and some corporate bean counter say, "Ah well, you see, we actually spent all your pension contributions paying out to the thousands of people that used to work for us and are now retired. Therefore we can only afford to pay you 3 baked beans and a sticking plaster fortnightly. Anyway, thanks for the overtime."

[heystoopid]

Down South

Down South , low pollution my ass , have you seen the air quality figures for places like Brownsville(which is polluted from all the US Gringo owned and operated factories just south of the border using the $2 per hour cheap Mexican workforce and the prevailing winds blow north across the international border , gotta love that transfer pollution effect!) and Houston(surrounded by 29 obsolete under maintained oil refineries all working at 110% capacity 24/7 literally killing their work force at times ,and many thanks to former Governor George now El Presidente can pollute the environment with impunity)and they are starting to make LA and San Diego look clean and have an honest police force to boot , since the endemic corruption of post US Civil War 1865 has never been eliminated down south!

Gotta love them Yankees , with their corrupt insular view of everything , walking arround literally deaf , dumb and blind wearing rose coloured glasses !