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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    20

    Default Flat Rate Compensation and Unpaid Labor

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

    Hello,

    Can someone please explain to me how it is legal for a company to agree that an hour of my time in labor is worth X amount of money, but at the same time they can require you to do things for free, such as pulling cars in to put air in the tires and not compensate you for that time, or pulling cars in to put washer fluid in, or those multi-point inspections that they require you to do with each car. Or when they ask you to test drive a car to look into a customer's concern, or in my particular brand, how the manufacturer openly states they do not pay for diagnostic time.

    How do companies get away with not compensating for your time in this situation?

    Thanks in advance.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Location
    OH10
    Posts
    17,019

    Default Re: Flat Rate

    What you earn on flat rate jobs, as a dollar amount, divided by the hours you spend working, exceeds minimum wage.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2012
    Posts
    1,991

    Default Re: Flat Rate

    your employer is not paying you when you are working on these tasks?

    contact your department of labor and file a wages and hours complaint , that is illegal unless you are exempt (management)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Posts
    20

    Default Re: Flat Rate

    My DOL is useless. It seems no one there understands how flat rate works or what I am even talking about. They can't even point me to the proper laws that address it, nor do any seem to exist, not even when searching under piecework. I feel like the employers here know this and we are being abused.

    Another question, is backflagging legal?

    Let me give a specific example:

    7 months ago I did a tire rotation which pays 0.3 hours. The car has not been back in 7 months. The tech who got it for tires claims a wheel lug nut was stripped, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But 7 months is a long time and there is no way to know if the person had work elsewhere unless the tell us out of the blue. Not to mention no other techs have ever had a problem with the lug nuts I put on, as I use a torque stick. This tech is the only one who has a problem, 3 times now. That's probably muddying things up too much, so let's start over.

    7 months ago I did a tire rotation which pays 0.3 hours. The car had not been back until yesterday when it was found one of the wheel lug nuts was stripped. The shop says since I was the last one who touched the car as far as they know, that I must have been the one who stripped it. It pays 1.0 hours to replaced a stripped lug nut. So, they pay the other tech 1.0 hours and then deduct the 1.0 hours from my total hours earned for this week. Is this legal? Also, if I was only paid 0.3 hours of pay on the job, why should I actually lose money I was not paid?

    Someone from RI who knows labor law, especially as to how it is related to piecework a.k.a. flat rate.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Posts
    372

    Default Re: Flat Rate

    Have you tried US Dept of Labor? They have an office in Providence or try 866 487-9243. You should be paid the book rate for air in the tires or fluid in the window washer tank unless you've agreed otherwise. The stripped lug nut sounds bogus too.
    Flat-rate and piece-work are quite common, it's hard to believe that RI Dept of Labor is dropping the ball.

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