I have a question. I first got hired at my current job, as a "part time" employee." They only have me scheduled for 39 hours a week because they say that by law they cannot schedule me for 40 or I would be part time.

No big deal there.

But now they just cut my hours to 35 a week, and they stated that the Texas Work Force commision says that no part time employee can work more than 36.5 hours per week period. I have been all over the Texas workforce commision site and cannot find any information supporting this.

Can anyone veryify or shoot this down?

And if they are just making that up, can I report them to any organizations?

Thanks.

An employer is free to schedule for whatever hours it wish. The law does not define what constitutes full-time or part-time; company policy does. The 40 hour denotion is only important when calculating overtime. A parttime worker may be scheduled to work more than 40 hours per week.

Other reasons may exist for the reduction in hours:
I.e. Benefit plan options MAY define fulltime as anything over 36.5 hours per week. In order to deny benefits, the work schedule would have to fall below this designation.

I understand that there is no distinction by law about full/part time.

But I want to know if they can get into trouble for saying that the law says so.

Is there any kind of trouble they can get into for lying?

No, there isn't.

Is there any kind of trouble they can get into for lying?

They may not be lying, but really believe that the law requires folks working xx hours a week to be "full-time" and anything less is "part-time." Employers get confused about legalities just as often as do employees.

Even if they are lying about why your hours are being cut, there is really nothing you can do, aside from quitting.

I'd have beaten you on posting, Patty, but my fingers insisted in typing too much!