My wife does payroll for a large company that has one office here in New Jersey. She has been erasing hours EVERY WEEK for the past 4 years that any office employee has worked over 40 hours. ( even her own ) .. If any office employee ended up working 40.5, 41., 42, or anything over 40, according to their time clock, she has been erasing them in the computer to make them 40 hours..

Her boss has crossed the line with other things too many times, and now its looking like she may not have a job there soon. He tried to get her to sign a statement about HER insubordination , which she refused, cause she doesn't feel like the information in the statement is correct. So they marked the statement with 'refusal to sign', without any reason for refusal.. Her boss has ignored her for the past week, after an argument they had, and he seems to be getting everyone higher up to turn on her.. She talked to her HR department today, and they basically made her feel like a spec on a wall. ( which we expected.) I have refrained on showing my own feelings on this guy for the past 2 years now, and can see how this will unfold..

Should we inform the NJ labor department of the company erasing employees hours worked ? She has saved every email her boss has sent her for the past few years and has many that say things like " erase anything over 40 hours ", etc, etc.. The employees that get the cut hours are all women , mostly younger, and/or just put up with it cause jobs are hard to come by.

So many other issues, but I'll wait to post those..

Any advice ?

So in four years' time, not a single employee has contacted the Department of Labor and filed a complaint regarding their unpaid overtime? Wow. :eek: That employer sure has been lucky, although it looks like their luck is about to run out.

Only your wife can decide whether to report this to NJ's DOL but if it were me and my boss started treating me badly, I'd very likely report the violation and let the stuff hit the fan.

You can contact NJ's Dept. of Labor - Wage and Hour Division, and they will send an audit squad out once they make a prima facie investigation to see if there is a chance there will be merit to it. This can be done anonymously, although you might need to send the emails to get their attention.

However, you might not want to do it anonymously. You might want to put her name in bright lights, neon and all, as the person who stood up to the boss and telegraphed the world of her bosses actions. Why? Because then the Company might have a hard time term'ng her since she might now qualify for whistleblower protection. Of course, this might not work where they are already building a case against her on other grounds (non-whistleblower) and thus it becomes a mixed-motive case, and also might not work where she never sounded the alarm bell before until her job was in jeapordy. Still, there does nto appear to be much to lose in making a very public whistleblower stance and then even declaring to the company "na, na, na, na, try to fire me now, I'm protected by CEPA, na, na, na, na." That is, if she's gonna get fired anyway, might as well have some fun with it!

Of course, you need to be aware of at least two things: one, if you're gonna do it, you might need to do it very quickly since a whistleblower claim don't work if made as your walking to your car with your box of office possessions and a pink slip. Two, and it might be difficult considering #1, you should consult an attorney who practices employment law. Maybe they can "steer" this thing better. There are probably many other things you need to think of, but those two come to the fore.

good luck, and post back with outcomes.

curt j.

Thanks for the information..

The situation she is in right now is not related to the hours thing. Last week, an argument spawned between the her and her boss. When she entered her office to continue her work, he came in and shut the door, stood over her with both his arms bent at his side, fists clenched, screaming at her, profanities a flying .. She was VERY threatened and started screaming back , saying to get the 'F' away from her.. He basically told her to get her stuff and go, so she did.. But he followed her to the parking lot and for an hour and a half, BEGGED her to come back inside.. ( we know it was that long because of her time clock record)..

Now, the report she refused to sign, is that she supposedly said she was going to 'get' him, and that she used profanities in the office.. The report states that a 3rd party (not named) heard her say this. :confused:

This is a very large trucking company.. $286 million gross in 2004.. The 'F' word is used in her office in EVERY conversation her boss has with different employees.. Both in vein and in normal conversation.. But now its a problem that SHE used it towards him..

When she called her HR department, they basically said they didn't want to hear about what her boss did, that SHE is the problem..

Truly amazing to me that a workplace can be handled in this manner... This boss of hers must have a bi-polar disorder of some kind.. A corporate psychopath, if I may... He has thrown things around the office many of times. Putting holes in walls, etc.. This year, he made a new rule that nobody in the office is to have anything personal in, on , or around their desks.. No pictures, nothing on the walls, NOTHING.. Its a VERY cold atmosphere in this place.. He threw one of our tupperware containers away from the office kitchen that my wife used to make her lunches.. He stated that it was a personal item that she didn't have a right to leave in the kitchen overnight...

We found out from another female employee today that she filed a complaint less than a year ago stating she felt discriminated against from him because shes a female,, but not sure what happened to the complaint.. (nothing, it seems)..


trust me, my wife would have been out of there long ago, if it wasn't for the health insurance... One of our children is living on dialysis without any kidneys, for the past 2 years.. No insurance would really put our entire family in turmoil...


Thanks for listening to my rant...

get it? Avenue? Trucking? :D

Alright, your recent post raised another avenue of thought, or maybe of thrust for you. You said you work for a trucking company. Would you care to share which one? In any event, the Fed DOT has very serious and thorough mandates on hours of driving for CDL licensed drivers. There are important regs on how long on the road before a break, how many hours in a 48 or 72 period, reset periods, etc. These are usually kept in a DOT mandated log book, which I believe is then transferred to some computer system to report to the DOT.

If this is what she was fudging (as opposed to office/dock worker tiem punches), then it might be bigger than you think. Not that this is a huge deal like the Lindbergh baby or Watergate, but rather that the DOT is serious about this and a large trucking company out of Jersey, the crossroads of the East and the East Coast's largest port, could have serious consequences. If'n its A Duie Pyle, Overnight, Yellow or similar, this could mushroom into a large affair. Of course, it might not, but I reckon if the log books and service time was fudged, the DOT would shut them down for a bit to do a large audit and levy huge fines and closely monitor in the future and etc. Then again, like I said, maybe not.

Well, if you were gonna whistle blow, and if it is the above type of offense, then you might want to talk to the DOT as well.

good luck,

curt j.