My boyfriend works for a small company that recently changed their pay scale. They are paid by the hour but will only get paid for what's billable, not for the amount of hours they are actually at the job. That also includes not getting paid for company meetings or waiting around for their managers to get them work to do. The company has lost large amounts of work so it has been touch and go since last summer. There was also an incident where the power was out for most of the day and he wouldn't pay them for that time either.

My boyfriend waited around for an hour to get a job to work on and then they wanted to have a meeting (same meeting they always have) and he only went for a few minutes because he wanted to get some billable hours in that day. Since he didn't stay for the remainder of the meeting (Q&A session) the owner has told his managers to not give him any more jobs so he hasn't been to work in 3 days. They haven't told him he was fired, or laid off, they just aren't give him work so he can't get paid. Is there anything we can do?? He is currently looking for a new job (obviously) but what do we do in the meantime for pay if they are discriminating against him and won't give him work to do? Are there any rights he has at this point?

Thanks for any advice you can give!
V

ScottGem

What work does he do? What area are you in? This does not sound like its legal. But you may have to check with the dept of labor.

vjsmiles17

He is an estimator. Bascially their company takes engineering plans for buildings, housing developments etc.. and they estimate how much it costs to do the construction for it. (earth work, materials, etc.)

We are in the Washinton DC metro area of VA. It seems so wrong, but we don't know legally how wrong it is. Especially not paying for a company meeting. When he is asked about it he said its just taking one for the team. ??? What does that mean! Since VA is a work at will state we have no idea if he has any rights. We want to look up the rights but have no clue as to where to begin.

ScottGem

You start with the VA Dept of Labor.

Does he have an employment contract? Does everyone follow the same rules?

Emland

Virginia is a right to hire state and as long as his pay doesn't fall under minimum wage on average, then they can do it. Sounds like the place he is working for is close to closing its doors.

If they are not giving him work or reducing his hours worked then he can file for benefits with the Virginia Employment Commission.

vjsmiles17

thanks for your input. We knew it would be tough to do much since VA is a right to work state, but we are hoping that he will just get a new job with a better company and just solve the problem that way! But until then we were worried. The company he is with now is very small and losing work more and more over time, it's time to go even if everything else wasnt an issue. They tried re-structuring and it was pointless becuase they needed work for the new structure to succeed. Thanks again everyone for the input, it is greatly appreciated. I will look into the VA dept of labor for additional info.

THANKS!!!