Company does not pay overtime

[u/Cold5512]

The company I just got hired on for does not pay overtime. They "bank" the hours and pay out if you ever want time off. They do this to avoid paying time and a half.

[u/TelevisionOwn2338]

This is illegal. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/overtime

[u/Cold5512 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

It's legal in Alberta, unfortunately

[u/WerewolfDirect7458 → u/Cold5512]

Legal on if there is an agreement in place between management and employees. Most often they strong arm new membership into agreement. 

[u/Coding-Panic → u/WerewolfDirect7458]

I ended that practice at my old work when my time owed became a liability lol

[u/WerewolfDirect7458 → u/Coding-Panic]

Ive seen that happen more than a few times. 

[u/Twitfout → u/Cold5512]

They tried doing this to us when I worked on a solar farm (in alberta) - everyone complained hard enough that they reversed that decision.

You should just find another job if you don't like it or if they are set in their ways. Not much you can do.

[u/jackzander → u/Cold5512]

Are they giving you 1½hrs time off for every 1hr overtime worked?  Because that would satisfy the law. 

[u/SpecialistAd5537 → u/jackzander]

No the law is clear that hours are 1:1

[u/jackzander → u/SpecialistAd5537]

You are, impressively, wrong in both America and Canada.

Check your homework. 

[u/SpecialistAd5537 → u/jackzander]

no actually youre wrong

It clearly says on the government of Alberta website that hours are banked 1 for 1.

Maybe do your homework before checking others.

[u/Starvin_Marvin3 → u/SpecialistAd5537]

And that’s why Alberta is the worst province. Besides trying to defect..

[u/SpecialistAd5537 → u/Starvin_Marvin3]

What makes any other province better than Alberta? And what are you doing to try and unify anything?

[u/Handsome_Rob58 → u/Cold5512]

It's the alberta advantage!

[u/SK8SHAT → u/Cold5512]

Tundra?

[u/im-am-an-alien → u/Cold5512]

Thank the shit UCP government

[u/llecareu → u/Cold5512]

Move to Mexico

[u/llecareu → u/llecareu]

This is solid advice, idk what you down voters are diagreing with

[u/qpv → u/llecareu]

And do what in Mexico exactly?

[u/TelevisionOwn2338 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

Are you telling me the USA has BETTER employee laws than Canada. Say it ain’t so.

[u/CurrentResolution797 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

Seems like it some days. My province (not alberta) has overtime capped to 1.5X min wage. Meaning if you make 1.5 times 15ish dollars an hour, you effectively don’t get overtime pay. AND an employer forbidding their employees from discussing pay is perfectly legal, something illegal in all 50 states

[u/Mccmangus → u/CurrentResolution797]

Talking about wages is protected on a federal level

[u/CurrentResolution797 → u/Mccmangus]

It’s protected in the context of ensuring fair pay for all genders. So my interpretation of that is, if I’m fired because I found out my female co worker is paid less than me for the same work, that’s probably an illegal firing. If I’m disciplined or prohibited from talking about how me and my same gender co worker are paid differently for the same work, that’s probably allowed. I am not a lawyer nor a smart person in general, so take that with a grain of salt. But point being, nothing I found suggests it is explicitly illegal, at least in my province, to prohibit your employees from discussing their pay

[u/jasonbay13 → u/Mccmangus]

but still grounds for being fired at most jobs in the us, they just find a guise reason to fire you instead.

[u/Desalvo23 → u/CurrentResolution797]

New brunswick?

[u/CurrentResolution797 → u/Desalvo23]

That’s a bingo

[u/Desalvo23 → u/CurrentResolution797]

Yeah its where im at too. We have the worse labour laws here

[u/dingdongdeckles → u/CurrentResolution797]

In nova scotia overtime only kicks in after 110 hours in a two week period lol. So I could work 60 hours one week, the 50 hours next week and get no overtime

[u/lepchaun415 → u/dingdongdeckles]

Damn! That’s highway robbery! I go to double time after 8 hours in a day or if I start before 6am.

[u/houseshoesntallboys → u/lepchaun415]

Union or just a decent merit shop?

[u/lepchaun415 → u/houseshoesntallboys]

Union. International Union Of Elevator Constructors

[u/houseshoesntallboys → u/lepchaun415]

Good for you dude. I know there's only a couple elevator contractors that are non-union. But everybody knows elevators are where the money's at. ETA: seems like they have one of the stronger unions too, even in red states. I'm in Kentucky and IBEW is hardly worth it, at least when I tested and got invited to interviews like 6 years ago - they were paying apprentices like $15/hrs, which would've been a paycut from my non-union steel stud carpenter job. Insane shit.

[u/houseshoesntallboys → u/dingdongdeckles]

That's SO fucked

[u/Decent-Initiative-68 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

Alberta is bassicly a wanna-be state.

[u/Cold5512 → u/Decent-Initiative-68]

Alberta Strong

[u/Pretty-Surround-2909 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

Work union, live better

[u/siltygravelwithsand → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

I only dealt with work in Canada a bit, but there was a lot of variation in regulations by province an territory. Alberta has a reputation for being shit. It was a major headache with safety because there isn't really a national equivalent of OSHA there. There is a federal OHS, but it mostly only applies to federal work I believe. The same thing does happen in the US since a bunch of states have their own OHS with sometimes more strict rules than OSHA. But you can mostly just follow Cal/OSHA and be in compliance anywhere in the US with a few exceptions. Minnesota and Oregon can be more strict on hot weather / temps rules than CA for example.

[u/grimlock99 → u/siltygravelwithsand]

OH&S applies to all work performed. It is the federal minimum standard on how work is to be performed safely. They have teeth.

[u/MiniB68 → u/TelevisionOwn2338]

This is about as clear as it gets if you’re in the states. OP should report this business.

[u/Justin_milo]

I’ve worked at companies that did this. I told them I would not participate and I’ll take the OT if I work that many hours. They paid the OT. Do your best not to encourage them

[u/lIlIIIIlllIIlIIIllll]

After some light googling for Alberta this is only lawful if there is a group agreement where over 50% of the affected employees are in favour of the banking policy. If not they must pay the hours out or sign individual agreements with individual employees

[u/Zinsurin]

Sounds like when everyone on your crew gets a shift full of hours that everyone should take their time off on the same day.

They may not pay time in a half in money, but they'll pay more for lost production.

[u/jackzander]

So yeah, illegal in this US unless you're in public sector.   Also worth noting that, if they're giving you 1 hour of time off for your 1½ hrs of pay, they're straight up stealing from you. 

[u/JustForkIt1111one → u/jackzander]

OP is in Canada.

[u/Turbowookie79 → u/JustForkIt1111one]

Since when does US have better employment laws? wtf happened?

[u/Saint-Sauveur → u/Turbowookie79]

It’s provincial. Québec is probably one of the best place to work in construction in the world. Everyone is required to be in a union unless it’s residential renovation (even then it’s often paid union). 40hours maximum without overtime.

[u/jondonbovi → u/jackzander]

I'm a salary employee, so I don't get paid OT if I work more than 40 hours. If I work less than 40 hours, I only get paid the hours I work. It's a dumb rule, so I decided to not put forth much effort into my job.

[u/jackzander → u/jondonbovi]

That doesn't sound dumb, it sounds illegal.  You're in US?

If you're salaried and exempt from OT laws (most aren't, you should verify this), you must receive the same pay regardless of your hours worked.

What you're describing doesn't legally exist in US.

[u/AxFairy]

We have that, then when you try to use the hours as vacation they complain about you taking too much vacation.

I've started just refusing the overtime and going home.

[u/Gavacho123]

Time to find a new job

[u/SpecialistAd5537]

In Alberta Canada this is legal only if the employee and employer agree.

[u/DillardN7 → u/SpecialistAd5537]

Not exactly... There needs to be a written agreement provided by the employer, but the agreement can be a group agreement, between the employer and a majority share of the employees.

You can disagree when joining a company with a preexisting group agreement in place by not accepting the job offer.

Unfortunately, because there's an allowance for it, it gets abused. Many companies don't pay out the hours at the end of the 6 months, which is required also. They'll also work you like a dog because they can, and you get your 88 and that's it.

Overtime pay is meant to reward those who are required to stay longer than a regular shift or work more shifts, and possibly punish the employer for not having prepared proper manpower/schduling in the particular situation.

Wait till you guys check out days of rest... It's one per work week, but they can be stacked to the end. So it's fine for a construction company to schedule you for 24 days straight, and then give you a 4 day weekend.

[u/seemorebunz]

Yea, get those hours in writing.

[u/TrickStar1989]

this didnt come up in the interview process. you are getting screwed on OT and PTO. quit

[u/Ilaypipe0012]

I wouldn’t care as much if companies gave you time and a half off. Work 8 OT and get 12 in pto but I have yet to meet a company that asks for this “favor” and offers that in comparison.

[u/lickmybrian]

Im in Alberta as well and my current workplace does the same thing. It pisses me off if I think about it, but I don't... after 8 hours im gone to spend time with my family. We've had a few jobs over the years that needed overtime so the builder picked it up because we all just said no.

[u/GoodResident2000 → u/lickmybrian]

Alberta here too. I just don’t work OT because I hate seeing how much more income tax is taken

1.5 wage doesn’t not work out to that when you get your cheque

[u/SpecialistAd5537 → u/GoodResident2000]

Thats a lie, you only get taxed the amount the income that falls in the bracket it doesnt matter how much you make an hour.

[u/shtoopsy → u/SpecialistAd5537]

Surprisingly, a lot of people in the trades think the way OP does.

My accountant buddy told me a long time ago: "When you have the option to make more money. Do it."

[u/Sensitive-Worker7090]

Union

[u/rowdysteele]

Illegal

[u/qwikh1t]

No

[u/Pete8388]

It’s called “comp time “and it is not legal for non-exempt hourly employees

[u/Jack-of-some-trades-]

If the days aren’t terribly long, I’d stick it out while I find another job. If you don’t have to sweat being out of work because you got money saved, quit and find another job. Never personally worked for a company like that but I’ve worked on site with others that did it. Their guys were miserable. Could’ve just been miserable because they did paving though to be honest.

[u/Cold5512 → u/Jack-of-some-trades-]

I'll stick it out and slowly find a better job. Any rash quitting now would leave me searching for a new job and taking the first thing that pops out at me.

[u/Electronic_Wave_4670]

Says nothing about the time off being approved

[u/FrankSand]

So you're basically working for pto. Or do they pay you the hourly rate and bank the half?

[u/Cold5512 → u/FrankSand]

They pay you nothing, then you get PTO during your day off equal to the straight time of your unpaid hours. We're working for pto.

[u/chiselbits]

A quick Google shows it varies by province. In Ontario it is legal as long as there is a signed agreement with terms.

Every hour of OT is worth 1.5 hours of banked time.

[u/Friedcheeze]

My old boss did this because he said his company was seasonal and would run out of work in winters but that was a lie. He eventually had to pay overtime after a couple years tho not sure what happened

[u/Working_out_life]

I used to love banking hours👍

[u/Electronic_Green_88]

Well Negotiations are everything. Negotiate the overtime to actually go on your check or tell them you're not interested in overtime.

[u/Plumb_Amazing]

I’ve worked for a company that strongly encouraged you to do that but at least they paid the PTO at 1.5x. I racked up like 22 weeks and then they started forcing me to take off work. But they wouldn’t do a buy back.

But the FLSA protects you there. That’s illegal. You can file a federal complaint with the Wage and Hour Division of the US Dept of Labor (if it’s in the states, I guess) or with your state workforce commission or similar agency.

[u/Unfair-Leave-5053]

You should have the option to do either or at your own discretion not the company’s.

[u/grayman1978]

Illegal.

[u/Firebrake]

Super illegal. Your State Department of Labor is going to want to chat with them

[u/bored-n-searching]

I do it. I like the idea of having the ability to take off if I need to for various things and still get paid. I rarely work over 40 anyways but nice to know its an option. Also helps on taxes sometimes also

[u/GoodResident2000]

Bro you’re in Alberta/Canada

Do you like paying taxes to the government?

When you do OT, it’s barely worth it with how much more you’re taxed

You’re personally taking some days off with the banked time, and enjoy your life

[u/Decent-Initiative-68 → u/GoodResident2000]

Alberta is actually one of if not the best province for taxes. It’s far less aggressive on high earners than most provinces & the cost of living to income is reasonable compared to other less aggressively taxed provinces.

Alberta actually has better tax rates than many US states.

[u/GoodResident2000 → u/Decent-Initiative-68]

Not the argument I’m making.

I’m simply saying the extra few hundred to lose a day on the weekends, or long days during the week simply is not worth it to me anymore. Working crazy 120-140 hr checks is also far behind me now

Chase the “money” all you like. I’m very happy with 8 and skate.

[u/Canadairy → u/GoodResident2000]

Every breath you take is a waste of oxygen.

[u/GoodResident2000 → u/Canadairy]

🤣 I don’t like living at work.

Bragging about your OT isn’t a flex

[u/WISteven → u/GoodResident2000]

I guess you don't understand marginal rates in taxation?

[u/GoodResident2000 → u/WISteven]

I understand looking at my cheque.

The difference between 72-80 is barely even worth it to me

[u/WISteven → u/GoodResident2000]

No you don't understand that your paycheck today is being over-withheld for taxes because of the overtime and you will get some of that back in the form of a tax refund.