Time and a half for over 40 hours

[krw]

Of course. The issue then becomes "who".

The generally accepted term is "layoff", but why are you stating the obvious?

[gonjah]

That was my thought too. At my job, if we go over 40, we don't get paid. "Overtime is NOT authorized". Fine with me. I'm used to 50 or 60 hour weeks (management).

[Bill Graham]

My point is simple. Unless you can prove that you were layed off for reasons unrelated to your job performance and or money restrictions, you can probably do nothing about it.

[Meanie]

Laid off or fired is irrelevant. If enough time elapse with the job, the ex-employee can collect unemployment compensation.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Maybe where you live, but not every place. Fired for cause is fired and no money.

[Kurt Ullman]

Kinda sorta. Most places differentiate (for unemployment compensation) between disqualifying cause (theft, absenteeism following warnings, drug use, etc) and not disqualifying causes (you can get it for incompetence, or bad judgement or even spousal abuse) where you can get money.

[clare]

Not if you are fired "with cause" in Canada - at least in Ontario.

[krw]

There is no reason you *should* be able to "do" anything about it. What are you proposing to "do" about it?

[krw]

Correct. "For cause" isn't the determining factor. It's more or less whether or not the cause was within your control.

[krw]

Doesn't it depend on the cause? If the job changes and you're now not qualified, it is a firing with cause (incompetency) but it's not something you can do anything about.

[Bill Graham]

I'm not propowint to do anything about it. Someone else was worried that his wife's or girlfriends boss would let her go for some non job related reason and was asking what he or she could do about it. I havfe been retired for 16 years now and don't have those kinds of problems anymore... but, in the past, I have had similar problems with idiotic bosses..... I usually found that the best thing to do was leave and find another job. Even if one were to bring their case to court and win, then they are going to have to work under a pissed off boss for the reat of time. IOW, there is no good solution to the problem. In the old days, things were a lot worse than they are now. I let it slip to a prospective employer once who I had worked for before, and he contacted that person, who (of course) told him not to hire me. You live and learn....:^)

[Bill Graham]

Which opens up a whole new bag of worms.... Is Kleptomania a treatable disease? And, if so, can you be fired for contracting a treatable disease?

[Bill Graham]

True. And this happens to many people in this computer age. I was a high energy physics machind operator. They obsoleted my machind and transferred me to a new, much larger and more complicated machind when I was older and less able to memorize large quantities of information. They didnlt lay me off, but they instituted a, "geezer elimination program" (my descriotion) where they paid you two weeks salery for every year you had been with them (up to a maximum of a years pay.) Since I had been with them for 28 years, I g9ot a years pay to leave, so I retired at the age of 61, but didn't start collecting any social security until the following year, at 62.

[krw]

Probably depends on how far left the jurisdiction is. Go far enough left and even child rape is just peachy.

[krw]

That question was about OT, not layoffs.

Certainly right.

Why should you even be able to sue? It's their job. If you're not the right person for it, for *whatever* reason, why should you be there? It's *not* your property.

[Bill Graham]

There is an interesting story (and kind of nice one, too) about the above program. We had an older guy nick-named, "Zack", who had been with us longer than I had. He was a carpenter in the research yard, if I recall correctly.One Friday, Zack told his boss that his wife was sick with cancer, and it was getting harder and harder for him to care for her, so he was going to have to leave. His boss comiserated with him and said, "OK Zack. You don't have to work the normal two weeks. Just come in on Monday and pick up your two weeks severance pay and go back home to take care of your wife." Well, neither Zack nor his boss knew that they had just instituted their, "geezer elimination program" that weekend, so when Zack showed up Monday morning, they cut him a check for 26 times what he expected. Zack looked at the check, and said, "There must be some mistake. You guys are paying me 26 times more money than you should." The accounting supervisor looked at the check and said, "No mistake. You've been here over 26 years, so you get a years pay for severance."

[Bill Graham]

Well, as a libertarian, I sort of agree with you. but if they fired you because of your skin color, (for example) they would be in big trouble. So there are exceptions, and many of these came about during my working life, which started back in the 60's when I got out of the Navy.

[clare]

It is "constructive dismissal" in Canada - and is NOT "with cause". The employer pays

[Bill Graham]

You speak as if it were a law. In Canada, it may well be a law. Here there is no such law. If your employer wants to get rid of some people, he just lets them go, but pays them for their accumulated vacion time. When I left Stanford University, they didn;t even pay for ones accumulated sick leave. I had around 6 months sick leave on the books, (I was almost never sick) and didn;t get paid for that. Smaller businesses here in those days, didn;t pay for vacations or holidays, either. Bsck in the mid 60's I worked for a place that fixed shipboard radars, and one day, my boss said, "Tomorrow.s the 4th of July, so you guys don;t have to come in". We all thought we would be paid, but when we got our checks a couple of weeks later, we only got paid for 4 days that week...:^)

[clare]

Accumulated sick leave is a perk that is generally regulated by your employment contract - if non-union it usually does not exist. Many unions are having to let that "bonus" go. I say good riddance. Not sure how it is in the USA, but since the sixties here in Ontario vacation pay has been mandatory in all but a few select job classes (education, police service, and a few others). It differs from province to province. 4% of total earnings from day one, and 2 weeks time off after one year - 6% and 3 weeks after 5 years in Ontario. Statutary holidaysvary depending whether you are in a provincially or federally regulated industry - some stats are provincial, some are federal.

Again - this is Canada (and Ontario) specific. We are a "socialist" society - The "american way" may differ.