Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with labor

WorkAccidentFilter: Help me protect my mother.

jofuu — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:52:07 -0800

She's burned her hands at work and I fear the company doesn't even want her around. Here's a little (err, lengthy) backstory...

My mother just turned fifty years old. Previously, she ran her own house cleaning business for seven years before her arthritis forced her to leave. Over the past few years she's gone from job to job, never really fitting in and usually leaving (or being let go) from around 6 months to a year. Mostly she has picked up work waiting at various restaurants, but at five feet tall, diagnosed with post-trauma stress, alcoholism and arthritis it shouldn't be too difficult to understand why things haven't worked out. Unfortunately this is the type of work she's done all her life.

She has a tendency to be overbearing in that she never stops talking (in part, I feel, from the very solitary lifestyle she's acquired.) She doesn't really have friends because of this and, having no friends and little family who care to deal with her stress, has absolutely no confidence and seems to be always throwing herself under the bus in an effort of falling under the good graces of others.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So last week she started at a little soup shop that just opened up in her town. After a few days of training they eventually stuck her in the back kitchen thawing and handling bags of hot soup (160 - 200 degrees F). After her first day she complained that she had burned her hands. (The shop didn't supply their workers with any sort of protective wear) She had even attempted to explain to her boss the situation, but he was "busy". By morning the pain had not gone away so she visited the walk in hospital where they told her she had first degree burns and that she shouldn't be handling anything so hot in the near future. She was advised to have her boss file an accident report and then file workmen's comp.

The next day she was scheduled to work the front register and she went in as scheduled. Upon arriving she learned she would once again be handling the hot soup in the kitchen. Knowing that if she complained, not only would she incur the scrutiny of her boss, but her coworkers also - she stuck it out another day in the kitchen (she said her hands had been feeling better and would work with them). Last night she calls me up crying because again her hands are burned. She called the hospital back and they told her she should DEFINITELY not have worked in the kitchen, and that until she files workmen's comp. she shouldn't be working at all. So she called out of work today and explained what was needed before she could return. My obvious concern is what repercussions her attendance will have on her future employment with the company, and if the negligence on the part of her boss is wholly unwarranted and due, in part, to a personal bias against my mothers individual persona.

In the event she is let go, or neglected to the effect of her leaving, how can I protect her? I just helped her sign a lease on a new apartment and I don't know what we will do if her income is cut off. For the past few months she has received unemployment (which we will only partial now that she has a new job).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Her situation is recurring. The opinion of her family and former friends generally falls somewhere between sympathy and an attitude of questioning her ethics and values. She comes from a staunchly lower-middle class family (Catholic, nonetheless) but the town she was born and raised, which she raised my brother and I, has been slowly inculcated with an air of superiority due to a flood of new money. Life here is too fast for her, no doubt, but there is no where else to go. (and I can guarantee you, if there was money for a lawyer I wouldn't be posting this on Metafilter, no offense :) )

Yes, she struggles with alcoholism and has been charged with various petty charges due to her behavior when drinking, but she attends all the programs the state demands of her (at the expense of her time/energy/money). She's a very lonely person who doesn't have the means to help herself, and most people around her blame her struggles solely on her, or at least cannot make the effort to see the effect of the larger social system on the individual. One last thing I would like to mention is that, when she realized she had a drinking problem years ago she brought it up to social services and asked for help for the three of us, wherein DCF charged her with neglect and threatened to remove us from the home. She was in the middle of getting a degree so she could become a teacher and, now with much time wasted due to the neglect charge, finished her degree for nought. (At the risk of this becoming a tirade I would just like to throw it out there that in my opinion social services in the United States have much more to due with maintaining a population of workers than it does with helping individuals better their lives.)

"Sweatshops"?

ebesan — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:02:56 -0800

"Sweatshops"? Overseas labor. looking for pros and cons; discussion on how to define/evaluate whether work done overseas is beneficial or harmful for the workers and country involved. 1. What is the point below which people are harmed? How is this arrived at, and what factors are included? (wages, hours, conditions, benefits)
2. Are there organizations that monitor these issues? How to find companies that voluntarily submit to examination?

Push Gift Ideas.

NotSoSimple — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:26:38 -0800

Push (Birthing) Gift idea? Wife has hinted and I like to give gifts. What is appropriate? We are about to have our first child in ~2 weeks and my wife has been increasingly dropping small hints at a Push Gift. For those who don't know, they are gifts given to the mother after birth. I like to give my wife gifts for special occasions so this works for me. However I am unsure as to what would be 'appropriate'.

Only jewelry thing she has mentioned in the past couple years is a pearl necklace. Thing is I dont think she would wear it. The other option is a spa day, which I know she will use. Any recommendations?

on call compensation

mandapanda — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:18:34 -0800

Is it legal in the states of Massachusetts or California for a company to require its non-exempt employees to basically be on call 24/7 with no compensation? Details inside. A company based out of California with branches in Massachusetts requires a group of non-exempt employees to respond to calls from its internal alarm system 24/7. The calls last only a few minutes, but require the employee to assess the situation and inhibit the alarm if the situation is not urgent. If the situation is urgent, the responding employee must go to the branch location and inspect. If the alarm is inhibited but the situation remains, the alarm will call again in an hour.

If and only if the employee goes the location, the employee will be paid. No compensation is offered for being on call to answer the phone, nor is compensation offered for answering the phone. However, employees get in trouble at work for not answering the phone on nights and weekends.

Is this legal? My gut feeling says no as the employees are required to maintain a condition throughout non work hours in which they are capable of responding to calls. Also, the calls require a non-negligible amount of work and definitely provide a service to the company. Taking the calls is a requirement.

Thanks for your input.

Can they lengthen my workweek?

235w103 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:38:19 -0800

Is a 45 hour workweek BEFORE overtime legal? I work in an entry-level position at a small company in an industry fairly well known for having long hours (not software!). When I started the job, they told me I'd be working at least two overtime hours a day; in fact, I often work a lot more. My paycheck has often turned out to be 2/3rds normal hours, 1/3 overtime.
Today, the two admin people sat the three entry-level people down and, in order to correct some "discrepancies", they were switching us over to a 45-hour work week; as such, they are only going to give us overtime for hours after 9 hours a day.
I'm not a lawyer, but I feel like there was that whole labour movement, children out of mills, 8 hour workday, right? They can't just give a guy a 45 hour workweek, right?
I work in New York City; I'm not entirely sure if I am hourly or salaried (i.e. they gave me an "annual salary" number when I started, but that is based on a 40 hour work week, with pay being allocated based on time worked, plus overtime).

Unfairly dismissed, unfairly reinstated

Julia F***ing Sugarbaker — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:16:22 -0800

My father just won an arbitration hearing against his ex-employer. They were supposed to grant him retirement leave -- but they've found a way to force him to return to work. Help! My father has worked in the meat department of a large grocery store chain for 20+ years, and is in a union. Last year he complained to the union about some management policies that he thought were illegal; he went to the manager first, and the guy stupidly threatened to "get" him if he went ahead and lodged the complaint. Sure enough, shortly afterward dad was fired -- they alleged that he had made offensive jokes and threats of violence to co-workers. My dad has a spotless record going back decades; he told me that the list of charges was purely invented, and I believe him.

My father was within 11 months of retiring with full benefits when they fired him. He suffers from degenerative arthritis, which was slowly making it less possible for him to perform the full range of his duties, and was practically dragging himself across the finish line to receive his benefits. This had been a source of frustration to the company, but since dad was in the union, they couldn't do anything about it.

Since he was fired, he has been through a long arbitration process to challenge the decision -- over a year. He is now well past the time at which he would have normally retired. The ruling was finally delivered -- unsurprisingly, the arbitrators found that the termination was wrongful. Dad was owed his full retirement package (they declined to grant him any back-pay for the months he missed, however). They also ruled that the company would have to give dad his job back if he wanted it, but of course he doesn't -- he told me that he'd love to take it back out of spite, but that physically he just doesn't think he can hack it at all anymore.

Well, today we found out that the store is requiring him to work 520 more hours before he can qualify for retirement. I'm sure they're just buying time, counting on finding a way to keep him from completing the stint or finding some way to weasel out of giving him his retirement benefits.

Dad is looking into all this with the union, but they're impossibly slow in dealing with these sorts of things, and he could wind up working again as soon as Monday. Standing for periods of more than an hour cause him incredible pain and swelling. The medication that he has to take to control this have bad side effects, and make it less safe for him to be working around saws, knives, and other tools, especially in cold temperatures. I want to know what he can do to protect himself NOW, and what he should look out for while he's on the job. But basically any advice would help.

Union How-To

Jon-o — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:02:06 -0800

When is the right time to get Labor Union representation? Has anyone gone through the process of unionizing their workplace? What factors motivated you? What was the main indicator that your issues could only be resolved through a union contract?
Once you decide on representation, how do you find the union that represents your field of work? I've found unions that represent transportation workers, shipping, airplane, auto manufacturing, and all manner of transportation related labor, but none that represent automotive repair technicians or mechanics.

I was born in Dusseldorf and that is why they call me Rolf

grobstein — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:02:57 -0800

What Nazi concentration camp should I visit near Dusseldorf? (For a friend.) A friend will be in Dusseldorf, Germany, for a short period and would like to visit a Nazi concentration camp. From what I can tell, the only nearby choices are the minor camps of Hinzert and Breitenau. Has anyone been to either or both of these camps, or traveled from Dusseldorf to another camp that was interesting? Quick answers appreciated. Thanks!

CA Labor Law: Salary to hourly demotion

jenmakes — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:16:12 -0800

CA Labor Law: A friend has been demoted from salaried to hourly after giving notice. Is this illegal? He thinks there may have been a law passed a few years ago banning a salary to hourly demotion. True? My friend was a kitchen manager with no hiring/firing power (in California); he gave notice last month and planned to leave at the beginning of August. Now with about a month to go, he has been demoted to his former position of Line Cook and his pay has decreased and gone from salaried to hourly. There has been no complaint against work.

The person taking over his kitchen manager job has simultaneously been upgraded to salaried and is in training for the new position. His boss essentially just did a switch-a-roo between the two workers.

My friend thinks this may be illegal in CA (possibly a new-ish law). If it is illegal, is there a .gov website that clearly states the law?

Help me find some books on the history of radical politics in the NW!

MostHolyPorcine — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:22:57 -0800

Help me find some good books on this history of radical labor movements in the US (specifically dealing with the NW if possible)! I'm a native of Seattle/Tacoma and spent 4 years in Portland. I've always been interested in the history of the pacific northwest, and now I'd like to go a little more in depth and study the history of radical politics in the area. The IWW had a strong presence, there was the Seattle General Strike, the Everett Massacre, the Centralia Massacre, Jack Reed got his start in Portland, etc. Are there any (accessible, this is leisure reading not academic) good histories on this topic out there? It seems like such fertile ground, but I can't seem to find any books that deal with the NW specifically.

Barring that, I'd also be open to any suggestions on books dealing with radical labor in the US in general (already read A Peoples history, though!)

Thanks!

How do I find movers / laborers in Madison, WI?

mullacc — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:28:48 -0800

Moving to Madison, WI and need some unloading help... I'm hiring a "professional" moving service to load me up in DC because I want to be sure the truck is packed up right. But when I get to Madison, I think I just need an extra hand or two. I don't need someone with a truck.

Is craigslist the go-to source for moving labor? I've scanned the Madison labor/moving page and there are a handful of people looking for general labor work. I presume hiring someone from craigslist is a better idea than picking up day laborers at Home Depot. Am I wrong? Is there another place to look?

Also, my lease begins on August 15th, which I'm told is the same day that all campus-area leases start. Anything I should worry about?

Thanks!

Music to give birth to

dstopps — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:27:32 -0800

My wife and I are expecting our first baby any day now, she wants me to make some cd's for her to listen to during labor, she likes popular music

top 40

musicals

popular country

any other relaxing (not just slow tempo) suggestions?

some specific artists are -
Sarah Mclaughlin
Colbie Callat
The Fray
Beatles
Bob Dylan
Michael Buble
Rascal Flats
Matina Mcbride

Thanks for helping

Cool Beats and Soothing Sounds to Give Birth By?

Any Moose In a Storm — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:52:27 -0800

Wanted: Beats and Soothing Sounds for Labor. Beats to help us keep the breathing even and soothing sounds to relax. Suggestions? SO wants to have some beats to help us count breaths something with no words like a repetitive track of African drums or good, steady trance music.

In addition, she would also like music to soothe and keep her relaxed as well.

Menstrual Cramps/Labor Pains Connection?

RingerChopChop — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:54:30 -0800

Is there a correlation between how painful/strong your menstrual cramps usually are and how painful/strong your labor contractions will be/were? My pregnant sister always had extremely painful menstrual cramps accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea and cramping of the extremities (feet, arms, hands, calves, etc.). We're wondering if this is somehow going to be a predictor to how her labor will go.
Do painful cramps mean you have a stronger uterus?
I, on the other hand, have never had any type of menstrual cramping at all, does this mean my uterus is weak? (FYI, I also have a tipped uterus). You would think that the way your uterus contracts during menstrual cramps would be similar (albeit on a much smaller scale) to how it contracts while giving birth.

Recommendations for books on labor/delivery/birth?

dpx.mfx — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:19:42 -0800

I am looking for recommendations for books about labor/birthing. First time mom, baby due in May. My husband and I are doing what we can to be prepared. I learn best through reading, though, and would like to find a book or two (or websites) about the actual process of labor, and ways to work through it. We'll be delivering in a hospital. I'm not opposed to "the drugs", but I don't have my heart set on them either -- I feel instinctively that being able to move around is important. I guess I'm just looking for books on the mechanics, and things that might help ease pain. (If you have any personal recommendations on what helped ease the pain, I'd be interested in that, too.) Thanks!

Labor law help needed for socal govt contract employee

Anonymous — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 08:38:47 -0800

I believe my company, a government contractor, is using alot of grey areas in their employee time cards to get away with paying as little as possible. For example, I am listed with them as "salary", which by my understanding would mean I get x amount of payment per pay period. However, they still have everyone fill out a time card, and pay us per the hours we have worked. However with widely varying schedules each week due to employees being sick, or managers (who do not get paid by hour but really are salaried) taking our shifts, it means our paychecks can vary by several hundred dollars either direction.

Now this means on the upshot, I have some weeks I get to pull in more hours, and to be honest this happens more often than not. However, since they list our positions as "salary", any overtime is treated as a normal hour. We do not get 1.5x for hours over 40 per week, and do not get 2.0x for holidays, etc. We just get the same rate for every hour we work no matter when it is.

At this time let me point out that everyone's shift here is, by virtue of the fact we have 12 hour shifts for 24/7 positions and the number of people we do, a minimum of 84 hours per 2 weeks. Thats broken into a 60 hour week, and then a 24 hour week. I can provide more details on how that breaks down if it seems relevant to the issue.

Even though I'm not totally comfortable with the setup as is, I can deal with it for the most part. Concern grows however, when in the past several weeks, a sub-contractor to our company, who supplies some of the employees I share shifts with, determined our jobs to be "hourly" and has granted their people 1.5x OT and 2.0x Holidays. Our company will not grant that to us, and has now infact, cut that sub-contractor's employee's hours down to 40 per week max to avoid having to pay higher rate hours. They are now "reviewing" our entire job description in an internal investigation to find out if we are salary or hourly.

My first issue is that the people doing the review are all pro-company managers, who are NOT accountants, lawyers, or have any qualifications that I can see to carry this out. My second issue is that pending the outcome of this "investigation" we have now be subject to many rule changes.

Sick time, even though our normal shift is 12 hours, can not be used more than 8 hours at a time (per day out sick), and can not take you over 40 hours in a week. This means a day I was sick last week and took off, which I rarely do, I have lost half of my pay for, despite having 100+ sick hours saved up. If I had come in, I would have been paid 12 hours. I was too sick, so I only get 6, because the other 6 would have put me over 40 hours that week. We have in the past ALWAYS been able to use up to our "expected scheduled shift" worth of sick time per day we call out. After the fact, and after I challenged this with my manager/pay-approver, an email was sent out explaining this new rule.

So, how can you help? Thanks for asking.

I need to know, specific to Southern California, or Government contracts, as much as I can...

A) How can I get a *real* investigation into they payment practices started, by a labor board or such?

B) Is there any recourse you know of, or could see, for me to get my 4 hours sick time. I admit its more of a principle issue than the 4 hours of pay, but I'm really really pissed over it.

C) If our jobs some how are declared truely hourly, is there any precident for possibly getting the past 2 years of my life here reviewed, for a chance at pack pay for all of those 1.5x and 2.0x days I've put in?

I know no one here is a labor lawyer, or my specific lawyer, and I am fully aware I am not one either... but help if you can. Also, note, we are NOT unionized here.

If someone would like more information or to discuss this directly, you can email me at anonymous_2350@randomshit.com. Thanks.

What are the best natural methods for inducing a post-term pregnancy?

mrgrimm — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 10:40:00 -0800

What are the best natural methods for inducing a post-term pregnancy? Yeah, yeah, I read the other threads, but I didn't find anything new.

Does anyone have any suggestions for inducing labor: semen (vaginally/orally); walking hills; acupuncture; extra fluids ... pineapple?

What (if anything) has worked for you? My wife is just past 41 weeks now, and of course is scheduled for (chemical) induction on Monday. We'd like to avoid that if possible, so we're up for most anything.

How can we keep anxiety down with uninvited vistors to the hospital?

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:03:17 -0800

New baby + uninvited family visitors = drama. More hormone-charged details inside. We're due with Baby #1 in a matter of minutes/hours/days. We politely asked family and friends to please leave us alone for a few days so we can do some nesting and have some time for the 3 of us to adjust. This was intentionally done because of particular grandparents causing A LOT of anxiety to both of us.
We thought everyone was okay with this plan, which we've been quite vocal about. But now that L&D is almost here, the anxiety-causing grandparent has decided that she and spouse are flying out (across the country) immediately.
I AGAIN politely asked them to give us 2-3 days post-delivery to be alone (to nest, to figure out breastfeeding, to recover, to get past the hormonal stage, etc. I also made the argument "What if we have a c-section or the baby is ill, maybe we'll want you out here for 2 weeks? Why buy tickets for 2 days now?") but they are NOT listening and say that they're on their way out tomorrow or Tuesday.
They say "We aren't visiting you, we're visiting the baby." (Which strikes me as even less helpful and caring about mom's well-being and sort of hurts.)
They are planning on staying at a hotel (we helped them pick one out but thought it'd be for later in the month and they were upset that we asked that they not stay with us due to cramped conditions), renting a car, etc.
We know that we can put them on a "do not allow to visit" list at the hospital (I think?). This possibly will cause more drama though, of course.
So, the question, what can we do to keep anxiety down? This is a stressful enough time without this added drama.

Can it really be harder to employ a yokel from Kentucky than a yokel from Bangalore?

milqman — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:15:37 -0800

How does one go about finding an Inshoring firm to off-load a large project? I have looked and looked and looked, I cannot find a firm that will offer me bulk, remote, unskilled, and cheap labor within the US. I am looking for say 200-300 relatively unskilled man-hours per week (smaller than some projects, larger than others).

If have had no trouble finding numerous labor sources from Bangalore, or the Philippines, or some backwoods province in China, but they will not suffice. For reasons relating to the job, it is important that they be familiar with consumer products found here in the US.

Where do I go? What do I do? I can't exactly tour South Dakota, and get them piecemeal.

Any thoughts?

Oh Baby!

Sassyfras — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:18:21 -0800

My neighbor/good friend just went into labor! I have the keys to her house. Give me some ideas of what I can do to rock out her house while she is gone! I was thinking of folding some laundry (I already started doing this while I was waiting with her for her husband to come home), leaving some meals/stocking her fridge. What else?

Is there an agency I should call?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:18:12 -0800

Labor Law: I work for a company in Texas. A friend of mine in another department called in sick this Wednesday and took the day off. She called in sick on Thursday too, but her manager told her that even though she had a fever she needed to come in anyway since they're working on an important project. Additionally, he told her that she would be working on Labor Day in order to make up for her day off on Wednesday. I guess I could understand this kind of behavior in exceptional circumstances where deadlines and times are really tight, but some parts of the company seem to be perpetually operating in "crunch mode" where taking vacation / sick days is a lot harder than it "should" be. She's not happy and is beginning to look for another job, but this had me wondering, is this behavior by the company legal? My general impression is that both US and Texas labor laws are pretty permissive when it comes to time off, so this whole thing is a non-starter and it's basically a "You don't like it, work somewhere else" deal. But it would make me feel really good to call a state agency and leave an anonymous tip. Is there anything I should do?

I could go to HR, but I don't feel like they would be on my side and I wouldn't be anonymous. Our company seems to have a culture of "HR gets in the way of doing real work". A while back our company brought in some external people to manage HR stuff, and they did a good job at pushing for more holiday time etc for the workers, but they were replaced. Our new HR Department is someone who's been around the company for a long time and kinda shares the culture I mentioned above.

Should we use a doula?

k8t — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:57:16 -0800

Should we use a doula for our hospital birth? It seems like using a doula is the thing to do now for hospital births and this is our first child and we won't have any family/friends around for support in labor. I've heard a lot of good reviews from friends and in pregnancy/parenting forums as well.

However, it is $600-1000. But, I am pretty sure that our insurance will cover some of it (looking into it now).

For those of you that have used a doula or explored it, anything that you can share would be helpful.

How do I get a deadbeat client to pay their invoice?

zzztimbo — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:29:00 -0800

Company still hasn't paid my invoice, what recourse do I have? I worked for a small startup as a software engineer for about a month's time. One day they decide to tell all of its employees that they will shut down for a week because of financial difficulties.

The company is open again but with about a 75% reduction in head count. They are now not paying my invoice for the work that I did before the shut down.

What can I do? Some one told me to file a complaint with the labor board. How do I go about doing this? What is the best way get remunerated for my time and energy spent doing work for them?

Also, I'm assuming the reduction in workforce has left a lot of empty Aeron chairs and computers. Should I asked to be paid in chairs and computers instead? I could use a new Mac right about now.

Should we have our baby induced?

faustessa — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:57:04 -0800

What are the reasons for and against inducing childbirth in cases of gestational diabetes? I'm seven months pregnant, with insulin-dependent gestational diabetes. I really like my doctors (OB, perinatologist, and endocrinologist) and generally trust their opinions. The OB and perinatologist are both convinced that it's best to have my baby induced, while the endocrinologist disagrees, and says this practice is "old fashioned." Of course, I will keep discussing this with all three doctors (and I will continue to keep my blood sugar under excellent control, and we will continue to monitor the baby's growth, etc.) but I would like more information to use while making this decision. Most of the information I've found on the internet seems to be in the "this is what's done" versus "you shouldn't induce your baby" format, rather than giving the reasons one might choose one option or another.

Incidentally, my own birth was induced. My mom says the labor went really quickly, but she didn't give me much more information.

So, what are the advantages of inducing labor? What are the risks of inducing, or the risks of NOT inducing? If you've been in this situation, what were your experiences?

Firing based on a background check

billybunny — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:02:40 -0800

A friend works for a company who has recently performed a background check on all of its employees. It has instructed him to fire all employees who come back with a previous felony, even though in several cases, they knew about the charges when they hired the employees. This is happening in Indiana. Is this even legal? What rights does my friend have to oppose these firings, and what can these employees do about it?