Asklemmy

43761 readers

1372 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

410

Wife's boss is on a power trip. Is this legal? (lemmy.studio)

submitted 1 year ago by neocamel@lemmy.studio to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

147 comments fedilink hide all child comments

My wife works in a restaurant, and the power-tripping manager has instituted a new policy where all shift changes must be approved by management. I think that is reasonable enough, but they're also asking the originally-scheduled employee why they are switching shifts, then approving or denying based on the answer.

For example, her coworker (Tom) wanted Monday afternoon off, and Harry agreed to cover the shift. The manager asked Tom why he wanted Harry to work for him, and Tom said, "I have a softball game." Manager denied the shift change because it was "unnecessary".

Is this legal? I feel like if you're able to find someone to cover your shift, you don't owe management any explanation why you need the time off. How should my wife approach this situation? Colorado, USA BTW.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] acunasdaddy@lemmy.world 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If this is in the US employment contracts are virtually nonexistent.

If a policy doesn’t discriminate against a protected class, it’s pretty much legal. Your recourse is to find another job.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We need legal advice communities

[–] APassenger@lemmy.one 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

With the country built into the community name. Less confusion and wasted energy that way.

[–] refurbishedrefurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

In the US, the state matters as well.

[–] Madison420@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not really, it's a private company unless you sign a contract they can indeed make their own policies.

[–] Trebach@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Within the laws of the location of the employer. That's why state and sometimes even local laws matter.

[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am pretty sure at any firm bigger than a mom & pop, there will be some sort of written agreement that the employee signs that establishes their intent to work for the employer. That's an employment contract even if it's not labeled as such. For example, they can sue if they aren't paid their agreed compensation. Because there's a contract for them to receive that compensation.

[–] acunasdaddy@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

This is not correct. Wage theft is protected by law, not contract.

An offer letter is specifically not an employment contract - that distinction is usually spelled out in the law and also in virtually every offer letter.