If you are a service technician your company may not be paying you fairly for the time you work. You should be compensated for all work related activities, including training, stocking vehicles with supplies, waiting for customers, completing paperwork, traveling between job sites, checking work orders, and maintaining vehicles. If you are not being paid for such work related activities, your company is violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Repair technicians often have irregular work schedules, and some work weeks may be longer than others. Most repair and service technicians are eligible for overtime compensation, regardless of whether they are paid by the hour, by salary, or by piece rate. If you have worked over 40 hours a week and have not received an overtime rate, then your employer may be taking advantage of you.
If any of these scenarios sound familiar to you, it is time you speak with an overtime lawyer about being compensated for your unpaid wages. The overtime attorneys at Dunham & Jones represent workers who have not been fairly compensated by their employer. If your employer is violating the overtime pay laws under the Fair Labor Standards Act, you will need an overtime attorney who can represent you and reclaim the wages you are owed.
Service technicians are often required to check the jobs they have for the day remotely, order parts, check company email, maintain truck inventory, and troubleshoot customers’ problems. If you are not being paid for any of these activities, you could very well be owed back-pay and possibly overtime pay. Anytime you work more than 40 hours in a week, it is very likely that as a service technician, you are eligible for overtime wages. It is illegal for your employer to intimidate you with termination of your employment or use other bullying tactics in retaliation to asking for compensation you are owed. Employees are protected by overtime laws, and it is illegal for any employer to violate their workers’ rights to just compensation.
If your paychecks are not adding up, or if you are completing work related activities off the clock, then it is time to contact Dunham & Jones to review your unpaid wages claim.
Call 1-800-499-8455 or Complete the form below
I am a service technician and my employer would not let me document hours that would have qualified for overtime. When I complained about not getting paid overtime, they fired me. Can employers terminate employees for grievances?
Non-exempt employees are entitled to overtime when they work over 40 hours a week. Your rights are protected by the Fair Labor Standards Act. There is also protection against retaliation from your employer.
When an employer adversely reacts to you for asserting your protections under the FLSA, it can be considered retaliation. The adverse action of your employer needs to be be material, meaning there was a significant change in the terms and conditions of your employment. This includes termination, demotion, reduction of job responsibilities, title change, or reporting the employee to Immigration and Naturalization, if they have an undocumented alien status.
The anti-retaliation provision of 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3) protects employees who complain directly to their employer, whether orally or in writing. These protections are discussed in the Department of Labor’s Fact Sheet 77A. The anti-retaliation provision states that “(3) to discharge or in any other manner discriminate against any employee because such employee has filed any complaint or instituted or caused to be instituted any proceeding under or related to this chapter, or has testified or is about to testify in any such proceeding, or has served or is about to serve on an industry committee” as unlawful. Workers who are free from fear of retaliation are more likely to come forward and report sub-standard working conditions or FLSA violations.
If you have been retaliated against or discriminated against by your employer when they are in violation of the FLSA, you may be entitled to reinstatement of your previous job, promotion, back pay and lost wages, and even liquidated damages. Employees can also receive compensation for attorney’s fees, and sometimes compensatory damages too.
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I receive bonuses for my work as a service technician. How do bonuses change my overtime pay rate?
Almost all bonuses should be calculated into your regular rate of pay, whether you are paid salary or hourly. Bonuses that should be included are non-discretionary bonuses, which are bonuses an employee knows of in advance, and knows they will receive if they meet certain standards, such as meeting certain goals. These bonuses should be calculated when determining an employee’s regular rate, and an employee’s regular rate in turn affects their overtime pay rate. If your regular rate is lower than it is supposed to be because your employer has not calculated a bonus into it, then you will be paid lower overtime wages than you are supposed to receive.
Other bonuses that need to be calculated into your regular rate of pay include incentive pay, which is compensation for special achievements. A shift differential is sometimes paid to employees who work weekends, nights, or holidays. The shift differential should be included in the regular rate of pay, unless the differential is more than 50% of the regular hourly rate. An example of a shift differential could be an extra $1 added to your hourly rate for working on a weekend. Seniority pay is sometimes given to employees who have been with a company for a certain length of time.
Some bonuses are exempt from being considered part of an employee’s regular rate. These include discretionary bonuses. Discretionary bonuses are given to reward an employee’s job performance, attendance, productivity, or quality, and are given based on the discretion of the employer. An employee cannot know in advance of a discretionary bonus, to ensure the bonus is not acting as a motivator for good performance, which would in turn make it non-discretionary.
The FLSA also exempts holiday bonuses and gifts from being calculated into a regular rate of pay. The holiday bonus cannot serve as a motivator for better performance, otherwise it is at risk as being considered non-discretionary.
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I receive commissions for my work, do I still qualify for overtime pay?
Almost all workers who receive commissions, should have their commissions calculated in their regular rate of pay. The commissions they make will affect their regular rate, thus affecting their overtime pay calculation.
The exception is the “Outside Sales Exemption”, which applies to workers who sell their products and services away from the place of business.
If your pay is entirely commission based, the commissions of your sales must match the current minimum wage, which is $7.25 in Texas effective July 24, 2009.
When calculating your overtime rate, it is helpful to consult an experienced hour and wage representative to ensure your computations are correct.
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