This may seem like a silly question, but i have searched for almost an hour on many Labor law sites and Maryland law sites to find my answer and it's just not there.

Here's my situation. I work in the entertainment business and i'm supposed to be part-time since i'm in college and working simultaneously. Well, since i'm now off school my employer decides to schedule me full-time assuming i can do this. I didnt have a problem with that and dealth with it, figuring the extra money wouldnt hurt. This week is a bit different, however...

Now, my employer shuns Overtime to the extreme. An extra 15-30min per week is ok... but anything more and you're written up for it. Basically OT is against the rules. We were scheduled for 45 hours this week as a crew and it was set up that we would each recieve a work period off so we didnt accrue overtime. That was also ok with me, even though i brought it up with my boss that i was still expecting to be part-time...


Now my boss decides to alter this schedule this morning to add 15 extra hours, approve OT for this week and that everyone on the crew is required to attend these 60 hours with no days given off or option of getting off unless you asked for it previously... This is where i draw the line...

Is there any sort of law or regulation (other than employer-made) that prevents them from scheduling me for that many mandatory hours A) without previous notice and B) requiring that you're there without offering you a way out of the overtime.

Money is money yes... but it's a holiday week and these random 60 hours, when i'm used to 20-ish... and this requirement.. ahh... sorry a little frustrated.

any help here would be awesome. thx in advance, i suppose. :(

No such law, except for some transportation workers. Frustrating, yes, but you've got to make hay when the sun shines.

...We were scheduled for 45 hours this week as a crew and it was set up that we would each recieve a work period off so we didnt accrue overtime....

This statement has me intrigued. Are you saying that you worked 45 hrs in a single week, and you were cut the next week, and that no OT premium was paid? If so, that would be illegal, as each week stands alone for OT. However I think there might be an entertainment related OT exception in Maryland. You'll have to wait for one of the MD people to show up.

No, not like that... We were scheduled for 45 hours as a whole crew. But we were going to each be given an amount on time off on that given week so we didnt work more than 40 hours.


Am i allowed to refuse to work this overtime? since it was such short notice and i did have things going on prior to this... or do i just need to quit haha.

i'm just wondering if i can make legal claims to justify my leaving or if i simply need to find a new job...

You may refuse the overtime; however, if you do, your employer may fire you and it will be legal.

There is only one state where an employee has a legally protected right to refuse overtime; Maryland is not that state; even in that state that right only exists in certain circumstances; even if you were in that state this would not be enough to trigger than protection.

Bummer. Well thanks for the answer. Guess i'll see what happens tomorrow.

I'll let you all know what goes down heh. merry christmas and all that. :)