Imagine working for a family member. What would you do if you realized the family member wasn’t paying you fairly, such as refusing to pay you overtime? Would you let it go since they’re family, or would you report them to the labor board?

In this story, one man was in that situation when he worked for his brother’s company. His brother refused to pay him overtime. He decided not to push the issue while he was working there, but when he eventually quit, he decided to report his brother’s company to the labor board.

Keep reading to find out what happened next and to see whose side you’re on.

AITA for going after my brother’s company for unpaid overtime?

So a couple of years ago i decided to leave my current job to go work for my half-brother (My dad had a kid before he met my mom) in his construction company( The whole company was 5 people. my brother and his business partner plus 4 labourers including me).

So basically just long hours in hot summer weather doing road work with ashplat and concreate sidewalks.

So my first few weeks of working with for him i mention that after working all these hours, i will be getting a nice overtime pay.

Or not…

He then tells me that i’m not entitled to overtime because i work in construction.

Which i found odd because through my own research into the labour laws in my province that construction workers are entitled to overtime after a certain amount of hours worked in a work week.

I mention to my boss (my brother) and his partner and im shot down.

I don’t want to start a big fight about it since he is giving me lots of hours to work, and i did move over 500 km away to work for him.

But he didn’t forget about the overtime pay.

After of about 5 months of hard work and very rough workdays. Emotionally and physically. I quit and moved back.

Since i quit the company i kept mentioning to my brother that i still think i’m entitled to overtime pay for all the long days i worked, but yet he still thinks he doesn’t have to pay it cause “its just how it is”.

I went to my labour board and filled a claim asking if i’m owed overtime and they forward me to ruled for the labour laws and based upon what the laws say and what work i did, i am entitled to overtime pay.

So i proceed to move forward based on the information the labour board has given me.

His brother is upset.

A day later my brother calls me and asks me what am i doing and why i filled a claim with the labour board.

And i just replied that i had mentioned it to him at the time that i had worked for him and continuously after i left and was lied to.

You only have a certain amount of time after leaving a company to claim for lost wages and i was on the last year and didnt want the risk of the company doing something shady so that i can’t go after them like shut down and start a new company.

My brother tells me that its costing him lots of money in lawyers fees for him and his partner cause my brother is trying to leave the company but at the end of the day that’s not my problem.

His brother no longer considers him family.

If him and his business partner would rather spend money on lawyers then pay my fair claim of around 700$ (i know its not a lot but thats money that i’ve already worked for and was lied to about) then they are costing themselves more headaches than they need.

So my brother ends the conversation saying that i’m in trouble and that he is going to fight this like i’ve never seen before and that i’m no longer considered his brother and to never see him again.

Am i the jerk here? I know i’m not putting in a lot of detail that’s cause i want to try to keep this anonymous because it’s already caused a lot of arguing between me, my dad and my sister.

Who wants to be brothers with someone who refuses to pay him what he’s owed? OP did the right thing. His brother is upset because he was doing something shady and got caught.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a mom who is irate after she gave a group leader money for her daughter’s lunch, only to have him pocket the cash and ask all of the kids to pay their own way.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person points out that what his brother is doing is illegal.

There will definitely be drama over the holidays!

Exactly!

I completely agree with this comment.

It’s awful when someone who is breaking the law plays the victim and acts like the person who ratted them out is the problem. How about don’t break the law! It’s not that hard a concept to grasp. Don’t do anything illegal, and then there’s nothing to worry about.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who just let clients complain after her boss refused to approve overtime.