tony11204
08-24-2006, 06:43 AM
My questions:
1) Am I entitled to overtime for work done at home on a website related to the company?
2) Am I entitled to see or should they have shown me the policy they referred to during my exit interview that they stated my employment with them was in conflict with?
A Little Background
At the beginning of 2004 I submitted ideas to my company (company name deleted by moderator) about going online to sell computer parts from the public store front I worked in. I submitted different names for domains I thought would be profitable for a future online presence and got little or no response from my superiors (CEO, Director of my dept., and Direct Supervisor) only because in my opinion they had no understanding of the Internet and technology involved. I waited almost 6 months and several submissons of my idea later and decided to research and purchase the domain names myself off of company time. I registered myself as owner and admin of the domain names since I paid for them. I created an information site about our store and what we did, donation locations, etc and basically maintained the website from my home, my computer, and during my own time off of work. About a year after I did all this the company decided to have me develop an E-commerce site with a name totally "unrelated" to (company name deleted by moderator) because they did not want the idea of a resale/thrift store to be associated with the selling of used technology. A majority of this work was done off the clock as well.
June 2006 I was terminated because of an alleged policy that conflicted with my criminal history from 1992 they said stated I could not work in a position handling money (I was recently promoted to manager). I was told by the HR manager and my Director that should others inquire (co-workers, previous customers etc.) that I should tell them that I was "let go" because the company was restructuring my department and there was no position for me in the new scheme.
Since being let go the company has realized the value of the domain names and requested that I turn them over and change ownership and admin names. I have not done so because I feel I am entitled to overtime pay for work I have done in researching, developing and maintaining these sites, as well as the out of pocket expense for purchase of the domain names and hosting. They have since retained a labor attorney and thru the attorney are only offering to pay for out of pocket expenses or take me to court if I do not comply.
All my time done on my home computer is very well documented in property sheets at time of creation and modification on these websites and clearly shows work on these sites was done outside of company hours.
What rights do I have???
1) Am I entitled to overtime for work done at home on a website related to the company?
2) Am I entitled to see or should they have shown me the policy they referred to during my exit interview that they stated my employment with them was in conflict with?
A Little Background
At the beginning of 2004 I submitted ideas to my company (company name deleted by moderator) about going online to sell computer parts from the public store front I worked in. I submitted different names for domains I thought would be profitable for a future online presence and got little or no response from my superiors (CEO, Director of my dept., and Direct Supervisor) only because in my opinion they had no understanding of the Internet and technology involved. I waited almost 6 months and several submissons of my idea later and decided to research and purchase the domain names myself off of company time. I registered myself as owner and admin of the domain names since I paid for them. I created an information site about our store and what we did, donation locations, etc and basically maintained the website from my home, my computer, and during my own time off of work. About a year after I did all this the company decided to have me develop an E-commerce site with a name totally "unrelated" to (company name deleted by moderator) because they did not want the idea of a resale/thrift store to be associated with the selling of used technology. A majority of this work was done off the clock as well.
June 2006 I was terminated because of an alleged policy that conflicted with my criminal history from 1992 they said stated I could not work in a position handling money (I was recently promoted to manager). I was told by the HR manager and my Director that should others inquire (co-workers, previous customers etc.) that I should tell them that I was "let go" because the company was restructuring my department and there was no position for me in the new scheme.
Since being let go the company has realized the value of the domain names and requested that I turn them over and change ownership and admin names. I have not done so because I feel I am entitled to overtime pay for work I have done in researching, developing and maintaining these sites, as well as the out of pocket expense for purchase of the domain names and hosting. They have since retained a labor attorney and thru the attorney are only offering to pay for out of pocket expenses or take me to court if I do not comply.
All my time done on my home computer is very well documented in property sheets at time of creation and modification on these websites and clearly shows work on these sites was done outside of company hours.
What rights do I have???
