Forced to Work Off Clock

[Monaarts]

My question involves employment and labor law for the state of: Georgia


My fiance is a part-time manager at a movie theater in Georgia. One of her job duties is to preview movies a few days before the movie is released to make sure there are no problems with the movies. Up until a few months ago she has always been paid to watch any of these movies, because she is in fact working. Recently they changed their policy and now they force her to watch these movies off the clock and give her a movie ticket for her time. Is there anything she can do about this? Sometimes she is required to watch several movies in a month (even if it accounts for 10 hours, it is a 1/2 of a week she should be paid for I think)

Thanks in advance!



- Joe

[PattyPA]

Since you mentioned "off the clock", I am assuming she is a nonexempt (generally speaking, paid on an hourly basis) employee. Yes, that is compensable time.
785.11 through 785.13 here:
http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text...1.2.44.3.434.2

She can either file a claim for unpaid wages with the federal Dept. of Labor or file a civil suit in the Georgia courts.

[Monaarts]

She is paid hourly, yes. She get's paid time and a half if she does work overtime. (of course watching the movies don't count toward that OT).

Thank you for your quick response.

[PattyPA]

Actually, there is a very arcane exception to the overtime requirement in the movie theater business, so she's lucky the employer is paying overtime at all.

[free9man]

Actually, there is a very arcane exception to the overtime requirement in the movie theater business, so she's lucky the employer is paying overtime at all.

Yeah, my brother used to work for a movie theater years ago. Never got paid for overtime, which since he was the only person qualified to put the films together, he got lots of.