5 Very Common Employment Law Violations
Monday, June 13, 2016, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
Most people have no idea what their rights are at the workplace. The assumption is that the employer understands what the labor laws are and follows them religiously.
However, you may be surprised to discover that your employer violates employment law on a regular basis.
These 5 violations are the most common. In fact, some of them happen all the time and you just don’t know that your rights have been violated.
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One of the things that violate your rights is having an employer tell you that you should never discuss with co-workers what your salary package is.
According to the National Labor Relations Act, an employer cannot stop employees from having a discussion about their earnings among themselves.
Without being able to talk about what they earn and uncovering potential inequalities, employees are not able to unionize and effectively organize themselves.
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Some employers will treat you in such a way as to imply that you are not eligible for overtime pay.
However, this is not up to them but is governed by the work that you do. All jobs have been categorized in two by the federal government: non-exempt and exempt.
If the job you do is under the non-exempt category, then you should get time and a half for all overtime hours worked, a full workload being 40 hours a week.
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Working off the clock is another of the employment law violations.
If you are a non-exempt employee, the employer should not ask or allow you to work ‘off the clock’. You should be paid every time you work beyond the normal 40 hrs even if all you are doing is taking calls or answering emails from home over the weekend or at night. This is a legal requirement and you can’t waive it.
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If you have been hired as an independent contractor but the company is controlling when you work, where and how, then they are treating you just like an employee and this means that you are entitled to equal benefits as their other employees.
They should also pay payroll taxes out of your salary. Even though the government has been cracking down on this issue, there are still employers who carry out this practice.
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Another issue is being disciplined for finding fault with your employer and posting your complaint on social media.
There have been several rulings by the National Labor Relations Board in regards to the issue of employers trying to limit or control what their employees are sharing on social media.
They have said that this violates the rights of employees to take part in what they call protected concerted activity.
They have further stated that employees are allowed to band together in order to bring about change in their conditions of employment even if it means simply complaining in a group together.
Employees have a right to say something negative about their workplace or the job without risking their employment. Employers, however, can prohibit bullying, retaliation, discrimination, harassment and false malicious statements.
Throw us a like at Facebook.com/doable.financeAuthor Bio:
Rachael Peterson is a professional business consultant with over 10 years’ experience. He believes that there are several employment law violations that happen so commonly around us that one may not even know they are illegal. Here they are!
