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Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time

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  • 07-07-2012, 09:02 AM
    unpaidtime
    Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time
    My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Virginia

    To begin with, my co-workers and myself are all non-exempt employees of a contract company working on a government contract.

    I have 2, and possibly 3 grievances with my employer, and we employees are trying to find out the best way to deal with it. I understand the "whistle-blower" law, but regardless, the last 3 employees who voiced concern up the chain of command were all fired. One was threatened with "we will destroy your security clearance if you report this after you leave".

    The first concern is the use of comp-time in place of overtime. The department of labor states that non-exempt employees must be paid overtime and cannot be given comp time.

    the second concern is travel time. Our company only pays 8 hours per travel day. Department of labor states that non-exempt employees must be paid from the time they arrive at the departing airport, through the flight/s, until they arrive at the destination hotel or finish business that day. On the return flight, you are paid from when you leave the hotel, until you arrive at the returning airport.

    So for a domestic trip, 8 hours usually covers it, but most of our travel is international. On 20-30 hr travel days we only get paid 8-16 hours (depending if it spans 1-2 days).

    The last concern, and i am not sure if this is true, but apparently the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act of 1965 states that vacation/leave accrual rates must stay the same when switching companies. Just over 1 year ago, all employees moved from company 1 to (current) company 2. no job positions changed, it was a seamless transition in the office. One day we were company 1, the next we were company 2. Most long term employees of company 1 like myself were getting 7 hours of leave per pay period. When we moved over we were getting 5.

    Now im not sure the last is completely accurate, but i know the first two are valid concerns.

    What i would like to know is if we actually have a case against the employer, and if so, what can we do to protect ourselves from being fired, as is obviously the retaliation of choice.

    thank you for any help
  • 07-07-2012, 04:18 PM
    jk
    Re: Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time
    concerning McNamara-O Hara :

    are you doing work for the federal gov?

    Quote:

    The McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act requires contractors and subcontractors performing services on prime contracts in excess of $2,500 to pay service employees in various classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found prevailing in the locality, or the rates (including prospective increases) contained in a predecessor contractor's collective bargaining agreement. The Department of Labor issues wage determinations on a contract-by-contract basis in response to specific requests from contracting agencies. These determinations are incorporated into the contract.

    The closest I find is the bolded above.
    Did you have a CBA with employer #1?

    to the travel time:

    is the travel for the job?
    Quote:

    the second concern is travel time. Our company only pays 8 hours per travel day. Department of labor states that non-exempt employees must be paid from the time they arrive at the departing airport, through the flight/s, until they arrive at the destination hotel or finish business that day. On the return flight, you are paid from when you leave the hotel, until you arrive at the returning airport.
    do you have a citation for that?

    I find these explanations from the DOL.



    Quote:

    Travel that keeps an employee away from home overnight is travel away from home. Travel away from home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday. The time is not only hours worked on regular working days during normal working hours but also during corresponding hours on nonworking days. As an enforcement policy the Division will not consider as work time that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile.



    .
    Quote:

    An employee who regularly works at a fixed location in one city is given a special one day assignment in another city and returns home the same day. The time spent in traveling to and returning from the other city is work time, except that the employer may deduct/not count that time the employee would normally spend commuting to the regular work site.

    which is your situation?
  • 07-07-2012, 04:39 PM
    unpaidtime
    Re: Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time
    i guess our situation would be the first. When we are on the road we are gone anywhere from 3-90 days depending on the location and work being performed. We work or have worked in just about every country that has an american embassy. But i have read somewhere...id have to find it, that said non-exempt employees are paid for the travel portion of the trips.

    I am also guessing this must be something the company knows is true if they have actually fired people over it instead of simply saying "no you are wrong, here is the documentation showing we dont have to pay you".

    all i can find at the moment is http://www.thehrspecialist.com/5204/...t_law&sub_cat= I know its not from DOL, but they to point out DOL requirements with links to them.
  • 07-07-2012, 06:13 PM
    jk
    Re: Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time
    what I quoted was from the DOL website.

    I did not see anything on that site referring to overnight travel. Did you?
  • 07-07-2012, 06:27 PM
    unpaidtime
    Re: Unpaid for Overtime and Travel Time
    unless maybe it is in the FLSA. I had not checked that.
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