I work for a small store in rural Colorado. We are asked occasionally to attend mandatory meetings with no compensation. Is this legal? If we do not attend we may be fired. The company is partially employee owned, 40%. The hand book says that these meetings will not be compensated. Can they really not pay us for meetings we are required to attend on our personal time?

Assuming you are a nonexempt employee (basically, paid on a hourly basis), mandatory meeting time must be paid. You can contact the state Dept. of Labor to file a claim for unpaid wages. Hopefully, you have some records of when these meetings occurred and for how long.

I don't know if what they are doing is legal or not. But my husband used to work for a company that did the same thing. However, knowing that employees were not happy about it, they turned the meetings into company dinners once a month. They company would pay to take the whole group out to dinner, usually a buffet style place, with a reservation in a private area so business could be discussed. Employees weren't paid for their time, but turned the "meeting" into a more friendly platform. After that was implemented, everyone was happier.

Perhaps you could make a suggestion like that?

I doubt they're going to take everyone out to dinner if they won't even pay for the meeting time. Mandatory is compensable, no matter what else occurs at the same time. Besides, paying for a meal does not free them from the requirement to pay for hours worked. Gottabe, if your ex-employer was doing that, he was in violation of federal and state wage and hour laws also.