Required Mandatory Overtime
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: KANSAS
I was just curious if an employer (in this case a federal government agency within the Department of Justice) can mandatory an employee to stay for an overtime shift. The scenario is this: said employee works a 2:15-10:15pm shift. The employee finishes that shift and prior to walking out the door, the supervisor contacts the employee and states they are mandating them to work an overtime shift (non emergency) from 12:00am midnight - 8:00am. This means the employee completes their scheduled shift, departs and leaves the place of employment and then has to return to work an hour and 45 minutes later to work a mandatory overtime (this employee lives too far away to drive home and then return in a timely fashion). Your options would be to sit/sleep in your car for the almost 2 hours or go to a local Walmart and walk around. Can an employer mandate you to leave and then immediately come back an hour or two later and if you refuse, bring about disciplinary action? I have heard of people getting mandatory overtime after a shift to work an immediate shift following their regularly scheduled shift.
Lastly, is there anything that states how many times in a row an employee can be mandated to work overtime (3 shifts, 5 shifts?) and who would be liable should an employee get injured either on their way home after 3, 4 or 5 16-18 hour shifts in a row (this type of situation would obviously present some workplace hazards as well as off duty hazards)? Thanks very much for any information or input. The water cooler - arm chair quarterback discussions at the office don't lend to any credible solutions!!
Re: Required Mandatory Overtime
Quote:
Quoting
Lfdfireman
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: KANSAS
I was just curious if an employer (in this case a federal government agency within the Department of Justice) can mandatory an employee to stay for an overtime shift. The scenario is this: said employee works a 2:15-10:15pm shift. The employee finishes that shift and prior to walking out the door, the supervisor contacts the employee and states they are mandating them to work an overtime shift (non emergency) from 12:00am midnight - 8:00am. This means the employee completes their scheduled shift, departs and leaves the place of employment and then has to return to work an hour and 45 minutes later to work a mandatory overtime (this employee lives too far away to drive home and then return in a timely fashion). Your options would be to sit/sleep in your car for the almost 2 hours or go to a local Walmart and walk around. Can an employer mandate you to leave and then immediately come back an hour or two later and if you refuse, bring about disciplinary action? I have heard of people getting mandatory overtime after a shift to work an immediate shift following their regularly scheduled shift.
Lastly, is there anything that states how many times in a row an employee can be mandated to work overtime (3 shifts, 5 shifts?) and who would be liable should an employee get injured either on their way home after 3, 4 or 5 16-18 hour shifts in a row (this type of situation would obviously present some workplace hazards as well as off duty hazards)? Thanks very much for any information or input. The water cooler - arm chair quarterback discussions at the office don't lend to any credible solutions!!
Because you are a federal employee, it is only federal law that applies. However, not all federal employees are subject to the same work hour rules. The particular agency for which you work and the exact position you have does make a difference.
Re: Required Mandatory Overtime
If you are a member of a union, it may also be addressed in any collective bargaining agreement.
Re: Required Mandatory Overtime
For the private sector, mandatory overtime is legal in all 50 states. To the best my knowledge, no state puts a limit on how many times a private (meaning non-government) employer can require overtime, mandatory or not. There are two states, neither of them yours, which limit the number of overtime hours an employee can be required to work (in at least one of them, the employee may voluntarily work more) but the number of hours that can be mandated would still include a number of double shifts. Nothing would change with regards to liability - if it falls under the state workers comp rules the employer would be liable; if it doesn't fall under the state workers comp rules the employer would not be liable.
I'm including this for those people who later come back and try to say, well, in THIS post you said thus and so - why doesn't it apply here? Federal rules and private sector rules can be different.