Companies have to follow relevant laws to keep their employees safe, and in many cases, they also have to follow the union contracts.

What would you do if your employer tried to get around some of those laws, but you caught them in the attempt and forced them to follow them to the letter?

That is what happened to the worker in this story, so she ended up getting paid for a full day’s work when she was only able to be productive for four hours.

Dense supervisors inadvertently force me to do less work for the same pay: A Saga Continues

This one takes a bit of backstory to understand how it all came about.

This sounds unpleasant.

So, when I was working at an absolutely filthy factory in the campus in which i was contracted.

I worked there for a number of years, but then began to develop issues with my lungs.

How could you like a job like this?

As filthy as the job was, I’d actually liked that position, but I decided to bid on a different position at a much less risky facility.

Part of this move is that I began to float between buildings as needed, which was incredibly convenient for my union work.

Getting up early can be hard.

The only negative is that for whatever reason employees at that building had a different shift negotiated in to the contract, meaning I had to be clocking in at 6 am every morning.

I am not a morning person so this was almost a deal breaker, but I reasoned I’d have more flexibility in my university schedule if I switched, so I went for it.

So far, so good.

I scheduled my classes according to this schedule change, and worked there for a bit over a year with no issues.

The only small complication is that I was one of two people who staffed this building from my department, and the other lady had suffered a serious medical event and was off on leave indefinitely, leaving me alone most of the time.

It must have taken some extra work.

That was fine, I was able to keep up well enough, at first.

I was really in to fitness at the time and had been going to the gym every day after work and class, so generally I had no issue with the physical labor at the previous building, and no issue running back and forth between buildings at this new site.

Hopefully, they are paying for her miles.

I also had to drive between locations to assist with other tasks, but that wasn’t an issue either.

Until I suddenly began to get dizzy spells I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I was alone on site so I couldn’t slow down, so I just powered through.

This sounds very serious.

The first time I fainted I actually didn’t know for sure that I’d fainted, I actually assumed I’d tripped and hit on the cement so quickly I just couldn’t process it.

The second time there was a witness, and it became a whole deal, ambulance called and the works.

Hopefully, the doctors can figure it out.

I couldn’t explain what had happened so I had to go out on short term disability until I got clearance from cardiology to return to work (yes, it was just run off the mill POTS, but I wasn’t allowed to return without clearance, per the contract).

I wound up being out for about 6 months, and I wasn’t happy about it, so when I was finally cleared to return, I was informed that they had given my job to someone else, and I was starting at a different facility I definitely didn’t want to be at, and at a different shift.

I can see why this was hard.

This was a problem for multiple reasons, firstly I’d scheduled my classes based off of the job I’d been hired for, not whatever shift they decided to “give me” when I returned.

Secondly they couldn’t give away the job of someone out on short term disability without consent of the person on disability, and I had definitely not consented to this change.

The laws on this are different in different places.

Thirdly, they DEFINITELY couldn’t change my shift without my consent, this was especially well protected in the contract.

Unfortunately, the girl who’d taken my job was a new hire, but had bid for my position through the appropriate process and had done so to be on a shift that allowed her to not have disruption in her childcare.

It will be difficult no matter who has to change shifts.

Switching shifts to the job they’d unceremoniously shifted me to would mean she wouldn’t have anyone to take care of her child after preschool.

I felt for her, and decided I would grieve the matter and make sure we both walked away from the situation with what we wanted.

Does she really have the upper hand?

After a lengthy negotiation, a lot of swearing and threats (mostly from me to the supervision about what would happen if they pulled this ever again).

I negotiated that I would permit the girl to keep the job I’d been in previously, but only if they met my demands at the new facility.

It is good that she is standing up for herself.

Firstly, I was going from a generalized labor position to being… an office cleaner. I told them no, I wouldn’t do that, as it was a downgrade of my role.

They would have to find me a position in my role and I would not be engaging in the role of the cleaners, if they needed to hire more cleaners, then that was their problem.

She needs that shift in order to continue her classes.

Secondly, I insisted I would NOT change my shift, it was non negotiable. I didn’t care of I was the only person out of 50 starting at 6 am, it wasn’t going to change.

Thirdly I caught wind that they’d moved the girl to my role, despite her not being paid for the labor role.

This just isn’t fair.

They’d paid her just over minimum wage as a cleaner to do labor duties. I insisted they give her every penny of back pay she was due for the work she’d been doing, but this time at the proper rate.

In the end, supervision had no way to argue it, and while I wasn’t happy, it was a small victory. Then I had another fight…

Break times are important.

This facility insisted on having set break times honored.

I didn’t have a way to argue this as break times were mentioned in the contract, but we didn’t have specific language allowing for flexibility.

Meetings to start the day sound awful.

The first time I encountered this was my first day, as this was the only facility that also had a mandatory beginning of shift meeting.

I arrived at work at clocked in by 6 am, and by the time I had my lunch in the fridge and my lights turned on and machines unplugged for the day it was ~6:25 am.

That’s a long walk to work.

I had to walk close to a mile through a building (I could slightly shorten this if I cut through an alley) to the main offices for the 7 am shift meeting.

Initially I thought that seemed absurd, and I had asked for permission to not attend as the walk alone ended up being close to 40 minutes round trip, not including however long the meeting ran.

Apparently, this meeting is important.

I was told I absolutely could not miss this meeting, and she was really smug about it too. I asked her if she remembered my hours, but she rolled her eyes at me.

I mean, ok, if you insist… I did try to warn you.

This should be interesting.

So, as instructed, I was forced to attend this understated meeting AND honor my strictly scheduled break times. My day ended up looking like this:

6 am arrival and lights turned on / equipment unplugged 6:25 am, walk between buildings for shift meeting 7:00 am shift meeting 7:20-7:30 am return to work location 8:00 am break.

Well, that’s not very productive.

So the entire first two hours of my shift I was unable to get any work done. Nothing.

After my break, I still had to prep all equipment, check equipment for safety, replace any parts needed (often very time consuming), check and organize my work orders… and then I was on lunch at 10 am.

Finally, she can get to work. Right?

So, by the time I had my lunch break, all I had time to do from 7:15 to 10 am was get my equipment ready for the day.

Things I would have normally done before my first break, but… I was told I had to attend that meeting and didn’t have time to start a project before I had to take my lunch.

She is only following directions.

My supervisors came over a day or two later, absolutely spitting with rage and ready to write me up. Unfortunately for them I’d written out the entire schedule.

As they’d told me, my break times were non negotiable. It was also non negotiable that I had to attend this shift meeting a building over.

They should have expected this.

I asked if they remembered the explicit instructions they gave me in this regard… for some reasons they looked absolutely thunderstruck.

They had inadvertently ordered me to accept a schedule that prevented me from getting more than about 4 hours worth of work done.

Will they just have to put up with it?

The kicker was that they couldn’t take it back without setting a precedent that exceptions could be made at that location.

I could see the cogs trying to turn as they tried to figure out if there was a way to punish me, but I had only done exactly what they insisted I had to.

Well, this worked out nicely.

So, yeah, I did as I was told, and they inadvertently gave me a job that prevented me from doing more than half a day of work, but I had to be paid for the full day regardless.

It also allowed me a lot more time to work on union paperwork as I wasn’t constantly getting in and out of PPE, and was able to catch more of their contract violations being closer to the main office.

Did this make the workplace better?

I’d like to think that I made their lives just a little bit more hellish, and it was in large part facilitated by their mess up trying to mess with my work location and hours, and failure to notice what they’d done to my schedule by ordering me to hike a country mile for this meeting.

I worked in that position for the last few years I was there, and it was a running joke the entire time.

I am sure the bosses hated this, but could they really do anything if she was following instructions?

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Free exercise every morning.

Every country has its own laws.

They won’t get away with it.

This commenter loves the story.

It is far too common.

If they had just treated her right from the beginning, none of this would have happened.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.