Logged overtime

[pahrens]

Hopefully someone here can answer a few questions...

A little info: I worked at Triple B Automotive in meridian ms for about 2.3 years under the bogus title of "operations manager". The reason I say this was a bogus title, is that about 95% of my time was spent doing manual labor and I did not manage anything. I was just laid off. Since I now do not have to worry about being fired for starting trouble, I was wondering about a few things...

1. Overtime Hours: My employer was not recording the hours that I worked due to being pay sal. at 616.00 a week, on many ocasions I had to work during days off and after hours repairing server crashes/software updates. I recorded the overtime that I worked which totals 165 hours just in the last year. Is my record of hours worked enuf to file a claim for my unpaid time? or would it be a matter of my word vs the employers? I would not put it past them to say that my record was either fabricated or that it was unauthorized even tho I was asked to do it.

2. before being switched from hourly to salery, I have about 40-50 hours of over time that I only got paid $8 an hour when my normal rate of pay was $12.50, this has been a little over 2 years (27 months)... can I even do anything about this now? Jobs down here are hard to come by and another employee was fired for dubious reasons after raising a similar issue.

3. While out of state for thanksgiving, my car died and I could not return on the following day. I was told this was not a problem but when I got my check 2 weeks later, it had a day docked from my pay. since I had permission to miss that day, and was not told that I would be docked, can they do this?

Thank you for your time and hopefully you can help me.

P Ahrens

[LConnell]

1) You have a limited period of time to file a wage claim with the US DOL Wage and Hour Division. Once you do, they will determine what kind of proof, if any, is needed in order to ensure that you are compensated properly. There have been numerous cases where, in a situation of the employee's word vs. the employer's, the Department of Labor take the side of the employee.
2) 2 years is way too long in order to file a wage claim
3) It is legal to dock a salaried employee for a full day missed, even if the emploeyr said it was okay to be absent.

Let me know if you have any other questions.