Wage theft generally doesn’t come with jail time for individual cases, but employees should know their rights. I worked IT for a payroll company and we were serious as a heart attack on the subject.
For example, if I call the board and say my employer made me work 300 hours of unpaid overtime last year, I get that money if the employer can’t show signed timecards for every instance of my claim. This is automatic, does not require legal representation, guilty until proven innocent. And then your payroll company spikes your rate and worker’s comp insurance may even get involved. (WC insurance rates look at more than injuries. If they sense you’re a scummy employer, lots of turnover for example, up go your rates.)
So yeah, the punishment should be jail for egregious cases, but we already have laws people don’t know about or take advantage of.
If get fired directly after contacting the labor board, you have the oh-so-rare, slam dunk, wrongful termination suit. If the employer is that dumb, eat their fucking lunch. (Of our few dumbshit payroll clients, I can only think of one that would try that.)
OR, simply cower, accept whatever they do to you, and come to lemmy to scream about cAPitAlISm.
It’s hard to prove wrongful termination when the employer can terminate for almost any reason or none at all.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that it’s really easy for businesses to get away with exploiting labor, and it’s comparatively hard for individuals to do anything about it.
True! Intent is hella hard to prove. But termination directly following a labor board complaint, without any previous documentation of issues would be a bad spot for the employer. They’re also going to be stepping lightly because they now know you have your shit together and can’t be walked all over. They’d find a way to eventually fire you, but not on the spot.
We already have laws. One call the the state labor board and that employer is fucked. No one knows this so no one does it.
Lots of cases don’t end up with jail time. Just a slap on the wrist in the form of fines and restitution
Wage theft generally doesn’t come with jail time for individual cases, but employees should know their rights. I worked IT for a payroll company and we were serious as a heart attack on the subject.
For example, if I call the board and say my employer made me work 300 hours of unpaid overtime last year, I get that money if the employer can’t show signed timecards for every instance of my claim. This is automatic, does not require legal representation, guilty until proven innocent. And then your payroll company spikes your rate and worker’s comp insurance may even get involved. (WC insurance rates look at more than injuries. If they sense you’re a scummy employer, lots of turnover for example, up go your rates.)
So yeah, the punishment should be jail for egregious cases, but we already have laws people don’t know about or take advantage of.
And then you get fired.
If get fired directly after contacting the labor board, you have the oh-so-rare, slam dunk, wrongful termination suit. If the employer is that dumb, eat their fucking lunch. (Of our few dumbshit payroll clients, I can only think of one that would try that.)
OR, simply cower, accept whatever they do to you, and come to lemmy to scream about cAPitAlISm.
It’s hard to prove wrongful termination when the employer can terminate for almost any reason or none at all.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that it’s really easy for businesses to get away with exploiting labor, and it’s comparatively hard for individuals to do anything about it.
True! Intent is hella hard to prove. But termination directly following a labor board complaint, without any previous documentation of issues would be a bad spot for the employer. They’re also going to be stepping lightly because they now know you have your shit together and can’t be walked all over. They’d find a way to eventually fire you, but not on the spot.