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From the www.siliconvalley.com blog:
http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2008/01/ibm_and_ot_if_you_cant_beat_em_screw_em.html
In January 2006, three current and former IBM tech support workers filed a class action
suit claiming Big Blue had illegally deprived thousands of its workers of overtime pay by
wrongfully classifying them as exempt under labor law. In November of that year, IBM
settled the suit by agreeing to pay a total of $65 million to 32,000 employees.
"Litigation of this case would have been lengthy, burdensome and expensive, and IBM chose
to resolve it," said a company statement. But the resolution must have been eating at IBM
since then, because it's now teaching 7,600 of its employees the meaning of "Pyrrhic
victory."
Forced by law to finally pay these workers overtime, IBM has decided to balance things out
by cutting their base pay by 15 percent. This means that in order to come out even, these
workers will now have to work overtime. But IBM naturally tries to keep overtime to a
minimum, and there won't be enough to go around, so, according to company documents, about
a third of these employees will end up taking a pay cut, and all because they made the
company abide by the law. Did I mention that IBM just reported record earnings and raised
its outlook for the year?
One veteran employee who was finally coming out ahead with the OT pay from her 50-52 hours
a week, expects those extra hours to disappear. "Anybody who's been in IBM knows that when
they look to cut costs, that's where they're going to cut it," she said. "I was so angry I
could hardly speak, and it takes a lot to make me angry. I just don't know how IBM expects
us to take this and just run with it."
IBM is peddling a different story to anyone who asks. According to a company Q&A script,
if a client asks, "What has been the reaction of employees who are being reclassified?",
the manager should respond, "They understand this is something we must do under current
interpretations of the law and to remain competitive within our industry." Yeah, right.
Weasel words from a big blue weasel.
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