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CA. Labor Board states "Good Case" regarding unpaid labor - Sherry

Posted: Jun 22, 2015

A fellow MT posted on the Nuance board that she contacted the California Labor Board regarding unpaid labor. I hope this case creates a precedent!

For me, some jobs are so laden with problems half my time is spent researching and correcting dictator errors - for no pay! We are not paid to check email, answer email, train, review of all the documents emailed to us, review changes in procedure, doctor exceptions to the rule, working with tech support, reviewing QA, searching for names and titles, searching mispronunciations, searching MTSO lists of providers only to have to then Google search, search for normals, searching for correct demographics, reviewing and memorizing specs, updating our expansion software, etc. If we were true "employees" w would be paid for all of the required labor they do not pay for.

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Labor Laws - anon

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The problem you've got is this ... the company you work for is only required to pay federal minimum wage for your entire shift. So, if you have an 8-hour shift (actual work), then this is the least you can be paid:
40 x 7.25 = $290

As long as you're making that per week, then it doesn't matter if you research things, correct dictator errors, etc.

Not true in California - Employer cannot average

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In California, employers cannot average piece rate pay over all hours worked. Separate pay must be received for ALL hours worked that are not directly production related.

https://www.wga.com/magazine/2013/06/01/california-piece-rate-pay-revisited

That's right. CA is a completely different animal - regarding sm

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break pay and nonproduction (email, FIESA, etc) pay when it comes to piece work. What Nuance is doing is illegal.

Some states have higher minimum wage.sm - Anon

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So the state's minimum wage applies, not the Federal. My state's minimum is $9.00 and will be $9.60 on 1/1/16. So you might want to check your state's min. wage because you may be getting shorted on your pay.

They only recently started paying min. wage - Sherry

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It took legal action to force them into paying minimum wage. When they demand an unattainable level of production that we can't meet due the horrid dictators, we are fired because we are not making them a profit. So our jobs are at more risk than ever. What about the decades they got away with not paying minimum wage, and only paying line counts? They raked in the profits on us and we should have been paid for ALL labor, not just part of it (line counts).

Received a settlement in under 3 months - Fedup

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I filed my wage claim in April and have received my settlement. I encourage everyone to file. It's free and fairly simple. I am very surprised that they still haven't changed their policies though.

Will you be filing another claim? - anon

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You said you filed in April and so from that point forward, they haven't changed their policies, so another claim for that time going forward?

Absolutely - Fedup

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As long as policies continue that are illegal, I absolutely will. Someone has to stand up for laws that were created for a reason. I'm sure they'll find a reason to let me go soon though. I can't imagine I'm their favorite person right now.

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