Dual Employment Utah

[cori_a]

Hi, I am a college student, and I work for a telephone survey company based here in Utah (they also have call centers in other states and two other countries. They don't like their employees to get over 40 hours. In my particular office, two different departments share a building. For the Evening department, I interview and hire people. I also clean the building. Because I can't do both jobs without going over 40 hours, and because they don't want to pay me overtime, they gave me a separate employee number from the day department to put some of my cleaning hours on if I work over 40. That means I get 2 separate checks, but it is all from the same payroll in the same company. Now, I might be exempt because I hire people, but they are not only doing this to me. They are also doing it to the kids on the phones. Some of them work for the day department and the evening department, and get more than 40 hours between them. However, they do not get overtime pay because they get two separate checks (due to having 2 employee numbers) that don't show that they worked overtime. I was just wondering if this was legal. Thank you!

[bowlmeover]

If I were you, I would contact the Dept of Labor in your state and pose the questions to them. If I had to throw out my opinion, I would say that if the 2 'departments' are run under the same Federal Tax ID (EIN), then you might have a case for the overtime. If in fact, when working the day/evening department is run under company 'Telephones are Us' with Fed ID 31-1234567 and the cleaning job is run under company 'Cleaning is Us' with Fed ID 31-7654321, then they have every right to not pay OT. It would be as if you worked for McDonald's and Burger King in the same week. Neither would owe you OT as you choose to work over 40 hours between them. Now, moving hours from one company to the other (as you state move hours between employee ID's), that would be illegal. You have to be paid for every hour you work under the company ID that you work it under. They could get in trouble for tax evasion under Federal Unemployment and FICA (or Social Security). You really need to look at your paycheck stubs and see if they put the company Fed ID on it. That will help determine where to go with this.....
Hope this helps!!

[cori_a]

Thank you for responding so quickly! I appreciate your help. I am sure it is all under the same FED ID. However, if it isn't that's probably their loophole. It is a big enough company that I think they have probably found something like that to make it 'legal'. I love my job, and I don't want to get fired (you can get fired for almost no reason here in Utah.) It is worth getting screwed out of money. I was just curious in case I ever decide I don't like my job and want to 'stick it to the man'. Again, thanks!

[bowlmeover]

The big way you could figure out if it is in fact 2 different companies, look at your W-2's from last year. They would have the Fed ID's on them.
You still have recourse on the moving of hours though. If it's the same Fed ID, then it's tax evasion on the employer since they are not paying you the correct wages (since there should be OT). If it is 2 Fed ID's, it would still fall under tax evasion for one of the companies as they would not be paying you for all hours worked.
I wish the best to you. It's always nice to hear that someone actually likes their job. I would start keeping an acurate record yourself though of the hours worked for 'Company A' and hours for 'Company B'. Then if you do decide to "stick it to the man", you will have your version of the correct timesheets and will be able to prove the willingness of the employer to move the hours between companies/employee ID's.

[cori_a]

Thanks. I will keep a good record of my hours and check my W2s. I am basically working here to pay for school. Then I plan on pursuing a career in my field of study. So I'll only be here until I graduate and find another job. I just have to decide whether or not to report this. Although I don't mind it so much, I know that other people do. Perhaps I will let them know what I have learned, and they can decide if they want to do anything about it.

[Pattymd]

A single employer, or related employers, must calculate overtime due based on ALL hours worked for ALL businesses or in ALL different jobs. No need to ask the DOL; I can confirm that this is federal law.

You can file the claim for unpaid overtime with the state Dept. of Labor.

[cori_a]

Wow. Thank you Patty. I will let my co-workers know as well so that they can file claims as well. This is an at will employer, so I just have to decide if I want to get fired, or continue to be the victim of illegal payroll practices.

[cbg]

Even in an at-will state, it is illegal to fire an employee because they filed a complaint of illegal pay practices with the state DOL (or because they reported any illegal practice to the appropriate regulatory agency).

[cori_a]

I know it is illegal to fire people because of that most of the time, but I heard companies in at-will states can get around that by "finding" any other little reason to fire you. For example, they will say I missed a spot when mopping the floor or something stupid like that. Was I misinformed? I think I feel safer just reporting them after I quit, which will be soon, since I am graduating soon. I'm keeping all of my pay stubs, and printing out my weekly timecards. I will also have copies of my W2s. Is there anything else I need to do to be able to prove that they are doing this?

(I am kind of naïve about these things, so I am sorry if my questions are annoying. )

[cbg]

It's not that you're misinformed. Some employers will try that. It rarely works, however.

The DOL and the EEOC and other like agencies are pretty savvy about figuring out when the reason used for a firing is a pretext and that the REAL reason the employee is fired was that they filed the complaint. So not only does the employer get hit with the penalty for the initial illegality, they get a wrongful termination charge knocked onto it as well.

Any employer with two brain cells to rub together ought to know that you don't fire an employee who's filed a complaint with a regulatory agency unless you have a DAMNED good reason, documented, to do so.

[cori_a]

Ah, wonderful. Thank you!