I am a welder/fabricator from California. My job is not structured as I work when the calls come in. My boss expects me to carry a phone & pager with me at all times so I never know if I have time to mow the yard or take my family to dinner. I do not receive any compensation for being on call. If I do not reply to his calls or pages, he calls my wife. Now the boss is trying to say that he is going to set a start time for each day so he is not paying out so much overtime & double time. If I start a job at 6pm and work until 8pm the next day I should get: 8 STRAIGHT, 4 OT AND 14 DT. He wants to say that I would get the 8 straight, 4 ot 12 dt and 2 straight for the following day. At that, I might as well go home after 24 hours.

I have also put in 19 hours, gone home to shower, eat, etc only to be called back after 3 hours and he pays me straight time for the next 8 hours. He is using & abusing me as well as ripping me off and I need some answers please. John/CA

He wants to say that I would get the 8 straight, 4 ot 12 dt and 2 straight for the following day. Assuming the defined work day starts at 6 pm (the employer defines the workweek, which must start at a date and time certain), he is correct. Each 24-hour work day stands alone.

Regarding on call time, whether or not the time is compensable is quite subjective and depends on several factors, including how often do you get these calls, can the issue ever be handled over the phone or is your personal appearance always required, how long do you have from the time you are called until the time you must appear at the job site, etc.

However, I have to say that if you are a welder working over 24 hours straight, I can't imagine that would be safe. And then, you're on call too? Shoot, I'd look for another job fast. :eek:

I work for a roofing company in California. I am the Contract Administrator, working in the office on bids/payroll etc. Our Superintendent and I are both on salary. I am able to take time off when I need it for doctor appointments, etc. Since he supervises the jobs, he is not allowed to go to his appointments (he is diabetic). He must always cancel his appointments. Our employees work out of town Monday-Friday and come home Friday evening until the following Monday morning again. Our Superintendent has not been allowed to come home on weekends. Our boss makes him stay and work 7 days per week. He has worked 7 days per week for over 6 months. He hasn't been home in over 3 months and his wife is getting mad. Our boss does way more than this and always seems to get away with it. He's been sued for not paying overtime before and "coached" other employees on what to say in court. He said he'd rather pay his attorney 50,000 than pay an ex employee 10,000. I have been looking all day on California DOL website and still can't find what I'm looking for. When I run payroll, the payroll program pays his salary but it says in the payroll program for a 40 hour workweek. I think he might be exempt from overtime because he does supervise, and is able to hire and fire, etc, but can our boss really work him 90+ hours per week without any days off? I need to find something in writing because our Superintendent wants to put it on his desk. We are all about ready to quit. I've been here almost 10 years and our super has been here 8 years and we've both seen more than we'd like to about how not to treat your employees. Our boss also makes people have comp time instead of overtime and pays them the comp time at regular rate- they have no choice- it's either take the comp time or look for another job- but that's another story. Where can I find- in writing anything that says our boss cannot work our Superintendent to death and if there is anything that says he has to let him go to his doctor appointments. Thanks.

If your boss is, in fact, exempt, which it sounds like he may be, comp time is a gift; exempt employees have no legal expectation of any additional compensation over and above their regular weekly salary, no matter how many hours they work. If he needs time off for doctor's appointments for his diabetes, he should look into the federal Family Medical Leave Act and/or the California Paid Family Leave Act regarding intermittent leave. How many employees does the company have at your job site or within a 75-mile radius of your job site?

As far as you are concerned, just because you are "salaried" does not automatically make you exempt ("salaried" is merely a pay method).
You can start here to read up on the criteria for exempt employees; in your case, the Administrative exemption would probably be the most likely.
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17a_overview.htm
California definitions are more stringent than Federal, but if you don't qualify as exempt under Federal regs, you wouldn't under state laws either.

If it is determined that you are nonexempt, if you are working for a private employer (not government), the employer cannot pay comp time in lieu of overtime. You could file a claim with the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement for unpaid overtime (they would probably discount what you had already been "paid" in your paycheck as comp time as straight-time pay).
Depending upon how long this has been going on, you may have exceed the statute of limitations for filing a claim and amounts due prior to that date you would likely have to file a civil suit for.
http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/HowToFileWageClaim.htm