I am an hourly employee. I was asked to go to Mexico to our sister plant, and I did. Others travel there on a regular basis, but they are all exempt employees. When I came back and turned in my time sheet, I was compensated for all my hours, including time and a half for all hours over 40. They came back the following week and said they wanted to take back some of my overtime because they intended to pay me only 8 hours for the days I travelled, despite the fact that I put in 3.5 hours of work on both of the days in questions.

I feel like they have put me in a position where I'm salary when they don't want to pay me the overtime to travel, but I'm hourly if I want to leave early to go to the dentist.

We are a small company without an HR professional, so they call a non profit organization to ask them what the law states.

What should I tell them? Is there a code I can cite to back up my argument that this arbitrary declaration of when I am salary and when I am hourly is unfair?

In case you need to know, the travel time back and forth to our sister plant amounts to approximately 14 hours each way, and I worked 3.5 hours in the Mexico plant both days, as well.

I suspect I will be discussing this with my boss within a couple of days so any advice you can give me is appreciated, and the sooner the better! :)

Duplicate post.

Please post your question in only one forum. We all respond to all the forums; you won't get more or different answers by double posting.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to be duplicitous (pun intended)...I put it in both places because I was told by the Massachusetts Dept of Labor that it was a US matter because I crossed state lines, but I had hoped that someone from Massachusetts might have a different view on it....

I'm from MA but we don't have someone from each state answering the various questions; don't I wish we had that many responders. There are only three or four of us and we answer all the employment law forums regardless of state. If there's a state law question we don't know the answer to, we either look it up or tell you flat out we don't know and refer you to the appropriate state agency.

If neither the state nor Federal DOL is willing to claim jurisdiction, nothing I say is going to make a difference. Sorry, I agree you're in a bad situation and I agree it's technically not legal. Unfortunately, my opinion and a couple dollars will get you on the Green Line. :)

The green line? Talk about travel time! What if I never returned? :)

"She may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston..."

Then your employer would be in REAL trouble! :D