What are an employee's rights in the workplace?

Question

A co-worker resigned from an over demanding position, which required her to do a two person job. She asked for assistance, did not get it, so she resigned. It was becoming too much for her and the company did not want to give her a raise or hire extra staff. The company has a hiring freeze and expects other people in the department to pick up the slack for the next six months. They do not intend to hire extra staff soon. Is this fair to the other employees? Do these employees have a right to demand compensation for taking on additional responsibilities? If yes, what demands are reasonable? Should these employees start sending out their resumes, if no one seems to be listening?

Answer 1

It might or might not be "fair", but it's definitely legal.

Interesting that you say they gave her too much for her to do, and wouldn't hire extra staff or give her a raise. So you are saying it would be possible for her to do the extra work, but only if she got a raise?

No, employees do not have the right to demand extra compensation for taking on additional responsibilities, except if they are required to work overtime they must be paid for overtime. But if they just goof off during their normal day so they have to get overtime hours to get the work done, they still have to be paid the overtime, but can get fired.

If someone is not satisfied with their working conditions, then yes they should look for another job. But many employers have or are cutting back and expecting more from their employees, so don't be real surprised if the same thing happens again at a new place.

Answer 2

A lot of labor laws are regulated locally so you might want to check with your HR department on this one.

However, my experience is that the company is free to give you whatever workload they want without automatically giving you a raise. It may be unpleasant and unfair but it is not illegal. If you are stuck in a position where your responsibilities and workload have increased, keep a list of your accomplishments and added duties. Sit down with your boss and say something like, "I'm sure you know that I have taken on additional duties and extra work to help the company get through this tough time. With this added responsibility, I feel a raise would be appropriate." Don't give an ultimatum like "if you don't give me a raise, I'll quit"

It sounds like the company is in financial trouble. When this happens, the easiest place to slash costs is in payroll by not replacing workers who leave and layoffs.

In a nutshell, you do not have a right to demand anything. But a nice request with lots of documentation on the extra work may help you. Keep in mind that if the company is really having financial difficulties, they may not have the money to give raises. Perhaps they could negotiate in additional paid time off or flexible hours.

Is there any way to redistribute the work more evenly among the staff? Are there any tasks that can be automated or consolidated? I worked for a place once that slashed our staff in half over several months. We were convinced that we couldn't function on a reduced staff but after we redistributed the workload, we were fine and wondered why we ever needed so many people in the past.

Answer 3

This is a pretty common event in todays marketplace. With cost of doing business going up, employee's are ask to take on more tasks so they can the staff reduced to keep profit in the red. If they dont do this then they will go out of business and no one will have a job. The only thing you can do is too look elsewhere for employment if your really unhappy.
Good luck to you!

Answer 4

Look for another job...you can demand all the compensation you want but no employer has to listen.
What's fair and what's legal are different.