We live in Oklahoma and my husband is a blue collar worker. Recently he has been forced to work no less than 12 hours a day...at times up to 16 hours a day/7 days a week. He hasn't had a day off in over a month. He only gets paid overtime for working weekends and then it is only for 8 hours even if he works 12, and that is straight time. He is making himself sick and when he has tried to approach his boss on the matter he gets told 'if you don't like it leave'. Which we would love for him to be able to do but we have two children and we can't afford for him to just quit his job and with him working these insane hours there is no way he has time to job search. He barely has time to eat and sleep. Is there anything at all we can do?

Oklahoma puts no restrictions on the number of hours an employee can be required to work. State law doesn't even require that rest breaks or meal periods be provided.

However I see a HUGE wage and hour violation on the overtime matter. If your husband is indeed a blue collar worker, then he MUST be paid time and a half for all hours worked over 40 in each 7-day payroll period. If your husband is not being paid for his overtime as required, you can bet many other employees aren't as well.

I suggest your husband contact OK's Department of Labor and file a complaint on his unpaid overtime. As to finding time to look for another job when he's working all those hours, sorry but I can't help you with that. You may need to do some legwork for him (reading the newspaper ads, going on internet job sites) and sending his resume off for him for positions that appear to be a fit for his experience. If they call to schedule an interview, then your husband will have to figure out how to work that out.

if he is working 12hours a day on the weekend and only getting paid for 8 and it being strait pay.......that is blaitenly(sp) ilegal. You get paid the agreed wage for the time you work unless you volunteer. Theirs no way they can legally MAKE him work for no pay.

ampman, this post is six months old. Please do not respond to dormant posts unless you either have a question (not a comment) about the law being discussed, or are the OP coming back with an update.

If you read the original response, you'll see that Beth told the poster exactly what you did. What good did it do to say the same thing all over again, six months later?