work and cutting pay

[Hartzmom2]

Hi,

My name is Holly, I was diagnosed with MS on May 18th of 2011. I missed quite a few days of work, for MRI’s, LP, Blood Draws, Dr visits.. 19 days to be exact. My work is now wanting to drop me from Salary, to Hourly. They said to better accommodate my days off for MS.
I am taking a roughly $8000 pay cut. They say that I will be able to work enough OT to cover this issue.. I dont feel it will work. And its not guaranteed hours or pay.

Is there anything legally that can be done?


Thanks

Holly

[EileenB]

Hey Holly....I used to work in Corporate Human Resources, granted 15 years ago, but a few factors
to consider.

what kind of work do you do? There are job descriptions
that are considered 'exempt' and those that are considered "non-exempt". Exempt means that this job
is a higher level, professional position, and it exempt from overtime. Chemist, accountant, doctor, supervisor,
etc. Non-exempt positions do receive OT. So depending
on how big your employer is, they do/do not have to
adhere to federal labor legislations guidelines. And if
they switch you to hourly, how many hours a pay period do you have to complete to maintain your benefit coverage, assuming you are receiving benefits from them. And then finally, how will they determine your hourly rate?
Good luck!!
EileenB

[LAlkana]

I was in Human Resources management for 20 years and EileenB is right: some jobs are exempt from overtime, others are not. This is based on the duties of the position and NOT the wish or whim or the employer.

If your employer is saying they want to move you into another job that might better accomodate your health issues, and the duties of that job are non-exempt, then their actions might be legal. However, if they are just changing the status of your current job from exempt to non-exempt, it probably isn't legal. This, of course, assumes that your job was properly classified as exempt in the first place.

My advise would be to call your local Labor Department, explain the situation, and try to find out whether or not this is something your employer can do.

[techie]

Ask about intermittent leave. After I was dx'd and came back to work hr had me sign up for this.
I was already hourly at that time. I had to work 30 hours in a pay period in order to get medical in insurance. It allowed me to work longer than I would have otherwise.
Intermittent leave may have different rules where you work too.
techie

[Hartzmom2]

I work as a bookkeeper. I have been doing this almost 9 years. I would be able to get overtime hours, but they are not a guaranteed amount either. i am currently making 40250 per year, and they are moving me to $16 per hour, plus my overtime. Which isnt all year round just around 6 weeks in the fall. I will be able to still have my health insurance, and everything else that comes with full time.
I just dont feel right about all this.

I feel they are discriminating against me.

[LisaL77]

Are they reviewing and auditing everyone's job duties/salary band or just yours?

I worked at a large company and they did do that across the board. Some people were 'management' level with no one reporting to them. We thought that was funny, a leadership position with no one to lead. Must be nice. They were angry about the downgrade to Senior analyst but them's the breaks.

[Hartzmom2]

it is annual review time, but they arent messing with anyone else's salary