• Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    No. That sounds like wage theft. If my boss pulled something like that I’d be on the phone with my state’s department of labor so freakin’ fast. If you worked the hours they have to pay you for it.

    Even if it weren’t illegal, it’d be a big flashing neon sign saying, “We will screw you over every chance we get, and you will be nothing but miserable working here.”

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    No, this both uncommon and illegal (assuming it’s from the US). They’re trying to couch their wage theft in legal jargon to scare the unwitting into accepting it

    • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I don’t think it holds up in court even if you sign it. It’s why contracts usually have clauses that if part of it is found void the whole contract is not void. You can’t do something illegal because you made someone sign a contract for it.

  • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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    9 months ago

    Others have heavily covered the legality portion of this but I want to point out one other key factor: any employer that tries to pull this kind of shit clearly has a significant employee retention problem, and they’re trying to fix it by trapping their employees financially rather than getting to the root of the problem.

    Refuse to sign this agreement and find another job. If they let you join without signing this agreement keep applying elsewhere because you’ll almost certainly learn very quickly why they have such a bad employee retention problem

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      At my last company, when I joined they gave me an employee agreement to sign that not only granted to them the rights over any software that I developed while working for them even if it was personal projects that I did for myself on my own time (which is standard corporate bullshittery) but also granted to them rights over anything that I had developed in my entire life previous to working for them. I told them they had to be fucking kidding me (like, surely they should have understood that at a minimum that would conflict with the rights of my previous employers who I had developed stuff for) and refused to sign it. They ended up hiring me anyway, without my ever having signed any employee agreement at all - I got like weekly email reminders from HR about it for a year until they finally just stopped.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        That’s surprising that instead of striking the two clauses you objected to that just didn’t have you sign an employment agreement at all

  • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    It’s blatantly illegal, and the fact that they were dumb enough to put it in writing means you have a slam dunk case for your local department of labor. File a complaint, and let the DoL take it from there; The entire department exists to deal with bullshit like this, but they only act on complaints.

    • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yup, this is highly illegal, and I’ll bet as soon as they crack open this company’s books, they’ll start finding all sorts of OTHER illegal shit. Companies dumb enough to put this in writing are also dumb enough to not stop at committing one crime at a time.

  • IvanOverdrive@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Russians have been know to burn places down as a form of protest.

    I don’t know why that just popped into my head.

    • rmuk@feddit.uk
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      9 months ago

      Check out my ornamental slicing machine. It’s from France.

      Sorry, totally brain fart. You were saying?

    • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I’ll just point out that 2000 North Koreans in China killed their managers and occupied a factory for weeks over something similar.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    No. It is legal and usual to pay in arrears (you work 2 weeks then get your check a week later) but it’s not legal (even here in Florida where workers have few protections) to withhold pay for hours worked. That’s wage theft, and it’s epidemic in the United States.

    What job requires a security deposit?

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      In certain specific cases when one is working as a contractor, but never an employee, one may be required to put down a security deposit that would be returned upon completion of the contract.

  • Mistic@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Very much illegal where I live.

    Not to mention, if the company has to implement such practices, it means it has a problem retaining staff.

    If it has problems retaining staff and solves it not by addressing the underlying issues but by extortion, why would you work for such a company? Their management is clearly incompetent.

  • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Okay so first off if this a job you are thinking about taking just don’t. Legal or not I have never had a job do anything like this or anything close. At the very best they are looking to screw you, at worst they are stealing.

    As for if this is legal (nal) my understanding is that for no reason can a company in the US dock, fine or in any other way deny you wages for any work already performed. It doesn’t matter if you did the work you need to be paid at the agreed rate. They can come up to you and just say that from this point forward the pay will be different, but only for future work.

    The one exception to this that I am aware of is if you sign an agreement with them that lets them do this. Such as fines for lost uniforms. Often this will end up in a legal grey area though very few good businesses will do this.

    TLDR business have to pay you for time worked. Crash the company truck they can fire you, but that last check has to be in full.

    • fluckx@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Businesses can tell you from this point onward your wage will lower in the US?

      That can’t be legal can it? That’s a one sided change of contract.

      • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The vast majority of employment is not under contract. That is why employment can be severed by either party at any time. So an employer could change a wage on an employee but there is nothing saying the employee has to accept it.

        • watersnipje
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          9 months ago

          Not under contract? What does that mean? Do people just walk in and work there whenever?

          • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            No there is an employment agreement, but not a contract. So the employee and employer both agree to the terms of the work. This is just no requirement for the agreement to continue if either party wants to sever the agreement.

      • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        We don’t get employment contracts anymore, ever since every state passed “at will” employment laws. Companies can drop you at any time for any reason that isn’t one of a very small list ( racial discrimination, union retaliation, etc) with no notice to you beforehand. They also don’t need to provide any real proof for their reasons unless you file a lawsuit, there are plenty of stories of companies getting wind of possible unionism and they fire groups of people for being late occasionally or the location was underperforming when really it wasn’t.

        • Everythingispenguins@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          I think you might be confusing at will and right to work.

          At will has been the basic format of employment for the 20th century. It in its most basic form said that the possible employer relationship can be severed by either party at any time. When this is coupled with both protected classes and unions seem to work okay to protect the worker. It is the system of employment seen during the post WWII boom. It is not without its flaws, but seems to work okay.

          Right to work is a classic case of misnaming to confuse voters, because everyone likes the idea of having the idea of having the “right to work” but all it really is a way to reduce union power. In a right to work state, workers cannot be compelled to join a union even if they are working at a union shop. In the short run this seems great to any individual worker. They are getting union pay without the dues. But overtime removes the protections that come with unions too by reducing the power of a union strike.

          Workers are much better off in an at will state than a right to work state.

          Edit in right to work states you can still be fired without cause.

  • something183786@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    If you are in the US, that’s likely very illegal. Wherever you are, talk to your state, Providence, federal, etc. labor board.

  • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Extremely illegal. Every minute you work must be unconditionally paid in full or they’re committing wage theft.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Those paragraphs read like a monetary version of a slave’s collar… disturbing.