Dec 18 2024
Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh.
Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda. What are we talking about today?
DeMatteis: I thought we would talk about staffing. Say a potential client comes to you and says, “I’ve been working in this role, and all of a sudden, we’re very understaffed. So now, everyone that’s been working for my employer is working twice as hard for no more compensation. We’re all really sick of it. We’ve talked to management. They say they can’t do anything for us. Is there anything that we can do?”
Goodbaum: Like so many questions we get asked, Amanda, this is a great one, and the answer is: maybe.
You’re entitled by law to be paid for the work that you do. If you’re paid hourly, you’re entitled to be paid for every hour you work and every portion of an hour you work. And if you’re entitled to overtime pay, you’re entitled to be paid time and a half for every hour over 40 that you work in a week. If you are paid a salary, and you’re properly categorized as a salaried employee and are not entitled to be paid overtime, then you don’t get paid any more for any more time that you work.
Almost every job I can think of doesn’t pay you any more for working any harder. If you are being more efficient; if you’re doing a better job; if you’re a nurse handling more patients, for example – you get paid for the amount of time you’re there, not how hard you’re working. And there’s very little you can do to change that, at least under the law.
The first thing you can do, of course, is that you can complain to your employer. You can say, “You know, we’re just working really hard. You need to find more people.” But it sounds like in the situation you’ve given me, your client’s already tried that. They complained, and the employer says there’s nothing more we can do.
What’s another thing you can do? Well, you might do what a lot of workers have done throughout history who were working in working conditions that were intolerable to them, that were unsafe, that were unsatisfactory, which is they tried to form a union, right? There is power in a group, and that is why unions have formed over history – to advocate for things like better working conditions, better wages, better hours. So, that’s something you might consider. You might consider contacting a union.
As a last resort, if the job isn’t what you signed up for, if you no longer want to do it, you might consider looking for a new job. You could threaten to quit your job or even quit your job, in that circumstance, if your job has significantly changed in the working terms and conditions. If you’re a nurse and you used to handle 3 patients at a time, and now you have 10 patients at a time, well, that feels like a really different job.
You might be eligible for unemployment, but you probably don’t have a legal claim against your employer for your resignation. You probably have not been constructively discharged merely because your employer is not staffing at a level that you would like them to.
Unfortunately, in most circumstances, you can’t force your employer to hire more staff so that you only have to do the work that you previously agreed to do.
DeMatteis: Thank you so much, Josh, and thank you for watching. We’ll see you next time.
Posted by Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C. in Commentary
Tagged Amanda DeMatteis, Joshua Goodbaum
