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I am a field technician. I work Monday through Friday 8AM to 5PM on the typical work week, and I origionally was on call from 5PM till Midnight every 3rd week Monday through Sunday, usually getting around 20ish hours of overtime which wasn't so bad.... but!
The company I work for was taken over a few months ago by a larger company and now I work 8AM till 5PM Monday through Friday and every third week I work 8AM till 5PM Monday through Friday and I am on 24 hour call for the entire week, usually getting in around 80 to 100 hours during this week, and what's worse is sometimes I put in 24 hours of working all at once only to crash and sleep for a few hours and then back at it again, there are 3 of us on this type of rotation and is is unacceptable for all of us.
The company is unwilling to hire a second shift to help with this because the overtime is suposedly cheaper than a new person would be because of tools, van ect...
Also the company is based in Michigan but our office is in Indiana although some of our work is in southern Michigan.
Is this something that's actually legal for a company to put its workers through? What laws are in place to protect people like myself. It is simply dangerous to be driving home 2 or 3 hours after working for 20 hours not to mention it is the most stressfull thing I have ever endured managing to get home and lay down to get some sleep while worrying that my phone might go off at any moment again...
*********************EDIT*****************
After reading a few other posts I also must mention I do get paid $10 for being on call if I do not recieve any calls although this never happens...
Also we all carry cell phones and when on call we are required to goto any call that comes in, the after midnight calls require a 2 hour on site time and from my home one is 1 hour 15 min drive and the other is 1 hour 30 min drive
and there is a 3rd site that is 3 hours away but with it we are given a 4 hour on site time.
The company I work for was taken over a few months ago by a larger company and now I work 8AM till 5PM Monday through Friday and every third week I work 8AM till 5PM Monday through Friday and I am on 24 hour call for the entire week, usually getting in around 80 to 100 hours during this week, and what's worse is sometimes I put in 24 hours of working all at once only to crash and sleep for a few hours and then back at it again, there are 3 of us on this type of rotation and is is unacceptable for all of us.
The company is unwilling to hire a second shift to help with this because the overtime is suposedly cheaper than a new person would be because of tools, van ect...
Also the company is based in Michigan but our office is in Indiana although some of our work is in southern Michigan.
Is this something that's actually legal for a company to put its workers through? What laws are in place to protect people like myself. It is simply dangerous to be driving home 2 or 3 hours after working for 20 hours not to mention it is the most stressfull thing I have ever endured managing to get home and lay down to get some sleep while worrying that my phone might go off at any moment again...
*********************EDIT*****************
After reading a few other posts I also must mention I do get paid $10 for being on call if I do not recieve any calls although this never happens...
Also we all carry cell phones and when on call we are required to goto any call that comes in, the after midnight calls require a 2 hour on site time and from my home one is 1 hour 15 min drive and the other is 1 hour 30 min drive
and there is a 3rd site that is 3 hours away but with it we are given a 4 hour on site time.
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