This new job of mine is making up their own laws

[Dyne]

No, there would be a different form; I imagine, for safety concerns.
Here is the page for the complaint form for unpaid wages. I had also found an 800 number and spoke with someone who was really helpful and supportive, I'm sure something similar exists for OSHA.

We also had some severe ventilation problems. I'm evidently more sensitive to toner dust than most people - I found out at my first copy shop job that if I got some on my hands and didn't wash them immediately my skin would get red and dry and itchy. While at the more recent job, you could see the air ducts were black with toner dust, along with the obvious black boogers, my eyelids, earlobes, lips, and around my nostrils were frequently sore and inflamed while working there. And I was also diagnosed with bronchitis shortly after being fired. Your situation with the press exhaust is definate BS. Let us know what you find out with OSHA (I sort of remember hearing Bush neutered a lot of their ability to act on reports of employer abuse ***).

The company I worked for was based in Harrisburg, but I'd been transfered to manage his shop in York, moved there, then 9 months later he says he's selling that shop, and he'd pay my security deposit if I broke my lease and moved back to Harrisburg. Moved to Hbg - thankfully lived with a friend and didn't sign another lease (got screwed on the apt in York) and got fired shortly after. Been drifting ever since. Loafed in Philly most of the summer, and have been on the road for the past month. (...almost crossed paths with PaCrappa in Seattle) Now looking for work around Phoenix/Tempe AZ. Might end up back in PA if things don't take off here. What part of the state are you located?

***
Under the Bush administration enforcement of OSHA protections has waned

OSHA has altered its regulatory mission to embrace a more business-friendly posture

i'm up in the mistake by the lake, Erie PA. funny that you mention Seattle too. i've got a couple friends up there that i'm visiting in October and am desperately trying to land an interview and move out there. i've had my fill of this depressing go-nowhere town.

is PaCrappa somehow in with Ballard JJ? i have them on my friends list on myspace and i think i remembered somebody saying it was him.

[Advocate]

From the owner,

It may be that I didn't get enough sleep, but this doesn't make total sense to me right now.

Regardless, this place wasn't for me.

wait ... so if you work 2 hours of overtime. You get it in the form of 1 hour of normal pay? I thought it was supposed to be if you worked 2 hours OT per day they shave the 2 in the first day and the rest will be OT. In that case everyday you'd have to work ... 4 hours to get 2 hours of OT. Unless I am reading it wrong like Shinobi.

[jonas]

Get a knife.
Stab them all.

[Advocate]

Repeatedly.

[Saint of Killers]

I think they mean that the first two hours of OT appear as 3 hours of regular time on your check (the two hours you worked, then another hour to make up for the extra .5 hours you should be paid for for each hour of OT).

[bandit]

How is it shady? The way I explained it or the way they're doing things?

They just used you for those two days to build a computer that they can use for FREE. You didnt even get paid for it.

figured this is a good time to chime in about my job. print shop without a union. they very rarely give out raises and when they do it's like 20 cents. we work 7.5 hours a day with an hour lunch thrown in. we get a 10 minute break at 10am and only the girls get a second break at 3pm. we get a whopping 10 days of vacation for a whole year. if you're sick, use vacation. if someone dies, use vacation. want to take a vacation? sorry.....no more days. then when somebody quits they never pay out the vacation time they have left, which to my understanding is illegal. vacation time is earned time and if you don't take it and quit, they owe you the value back. the thing is with such a small amount of value there nobody has yet to challenge it because going through the process to fight for it would cost much more.

so why am i here? bacause i get to do design work and print out all the shit i need for my portfolio for free. trust me, since i started i've been trying to find an out.

Damn, I get 2 personal days, they set the amount of sick days so as long you dont abuse it (on average its about 6-8 sick days per year), 3 weeks vacation right off the bat (if I dont accumulate the 3 weeks before I leave, I have to pay) and 401k (matching). Pay isnt that great as I wanted more but I'm just starting in the graphic design field but hopefully pay will improve now that we merged.

Regarding vacation, if you use up your vacation say for instance 2 weeks and you only accumulated 1.5 weeks, you have to pay for the 0.5 weeks that you didnt accumulate. Thats how it is with my job. If you dont use up your vacation, they should pay you for it. You're entitled to it. My job lets us bank over 5 days to be used the following year. I used 1 week this year. Im going to bank over 5 days for 2008, so that way i get 4 weeks. That leaves me with 1 week of vacay until the end of the year. I also get the week of xmas off and still get paid for it.

As for overtime, we use to never get overtime. Now that we merged, policies have changed and our job duties have increased ten-fold. So our new Director boss talked to HR and we're now getting overtime pay. If we work 2.5 hours consecutive of OT, we get paid for 30mins of lunch too. After looking at my pay stub, we dont get paid time and a half after the 40 hours. We get paid regular time pay and I think after a certain amount of hours, then we get paid time and a half. Not sure exactly.

interesting that your story is from a printshop as well. i also didnt know about the online form. my place tried to incorporate a "if you don't work a full hour OT you don't get paid for it" type of bs. meaning if you worked 45 minutes over you got nothing for it. if you work an hour and 45 you got the one hour. after i said it was illegal that idea disappeared. can i also use that same online form to ask about safety concerns, or would that just be through OSHA? they use the press exhaust to heat our bindery and claim it's just ambient heat, yet the duct backed up one day and a pile of black soot fell on the floor. they also have people driving the forklift without a license. i used to be certified from my hs job at Lowes but only one guy here has one and 3 of us drive it. i also taste the smell of this place driving home (as weird as that sounds) so the air quality can't be the best. any flying bug that comes in here is always lethargic and close to death. i mean how often can you pick a live fly up with your fingers and just have it sit there? this happens all the time here.

where are you at in PA btw?

That fucking sucks if you work an hour 45 and you only get paid for 1 hour. For that, might as well just stay the extra 15 mins.

From the owner,

It may be that I didn't get enough sleep, but this doesn't make total sense to me right now.

Regardless, this place wasn't for me.

He made no sense at all. If company pays overtime after 40 hours...so why give that bullshit sentence that didnt make sense in the beginning? If the company pays overtime after 40 hours like everyone else...wheres the OT pay?

[bandit]

I think they mean that the first two hours of OT appear as 3 hours of regular time on your check (the two hours you worked, then another hour to make up for the extra .5 hours you should be paid for for each hour of OT).

I think that is how my job is. After the 40 hours, we get paid regular time for overtime. After a certain amount of hours of overtime, thats when the time and a half kicks in.

[Shine]

I remember when, back in HS in what seems like a century ago, we took a tour of the Allegro building--they make computer chips, it's a huge building just outside of the ghetto that I grew up in--and every employee had a 35 hour week, anything they worked over that, they got overtime for. Fuck that job, I get paid shit, and even I get overtime. All that crap about going places is meaningless when your bottom man on the totem.

[JBNagis]

I think that is how my job is. After the 40 hours, we get paid regular time for overtime. After a certain amount of hours of overtime, thats when the time and a half kicks in.

Thats kind of weird.
The way my job works anything past 8 hours is overtime.
And its listed separately on my checks as overtime.So you can work 4 days a week,10 hours a day, and get 8 hours overtime.And after working those 40hours in those 4 days, if you come in a 5th day,its all overtime.
Cool thing about being a manager is I get paid double for holidays i work. And holiday's i dont work i still get paid.



JBNagis

[Shinobi128]

Regular pay is your hourly wage. Overtime pay is your hourly wage times 1.5.

Regular Pay......@ XX.00......40.00 Hours.....= XX.00 Amount
Overtime Pay....@ XX.00......07.00 Hours.....= XX.00 Amount
-------------------------------------------------------
Total XX.00

It can't be that difficult for a company to follow this procedure.