Abused at work

[AnonGuy]

California

Hello all, Everyone has been telling me that the hours I am made to work are completely illegal. This is a few things of what has happened to me in the past...

1. I'v worked 120 hours in a single week.
2. Made to work 36+ hours straight without being sent home.
3. Worked a full 8 hour shift without taking a lunch break.
4. Have had my timecard edited to show incorrect hours worked. This was to hide the occurance of problem 2.
5. Worked 3-4 weeks and more without a single day off.

Is this legal? Please advise me on each of these instances please.

Thank you everyone for the advice!

 

[cbg]

The answer depends on several factors we do not have available to us. According to one UNCONFIRMED source, CA is the ONLY state in the US which limits the number of hours an employee could be asked to work. However, this source did NOT provide a specific CA law that says so, and I could not find anything on the CA website that confirmed it.

Assuming you are a non-exempt employee, you MUST receive both lunch and rest breaks. You MUST be paid OT for every hour over 8 in a day, and in some other cases which I'm not going to take the time to look up right now. According to the same source as above, you must receive one day out of seven off but again I could find no confirmation of that on the CA web site. (I'm not saying that the source is wrong; only that I can't find confirmation of what it says. On the other hand, I've caught that site in errors before.) Keep in mind that one-day-rest-in-seven doesn't mean you get every seventh day off; you can be made to work up to twelve days in a row and still be in compliance.

You MUST be paid for each and every hour that you work

Even if the source in question is 100% correct, there is an implication that some industry-specific exceptions apply, and it did not explain which industries were affected.

So if you are non-exempt, you clearly have some violations, but it's unclear whether EVERYTHING you describe is illegal.

If you are an exempt employee, there is no limit to the number of hours you can be made to work, and you need receive no additional compensation over and above your regular salary.

Your best bet would be to contact the state DOL, give them ALL the details, and ask them. They would be the agency with whom you would file a complaint for any of the issues you refer to.