Legal options when shorted on pay?
Posted By: broke MT on 2008-12-08
In Reply to:
I am an employee of an MT company and was not paid according to what I was told I would be paid. I am wondering if anyone can tell me what legal options I have. Thanks for any help.
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Legal or not legal overtime question.
My friend works for an MTSO who assigns dictators. You are supposed to keep up with your assigned dictator whatever that takes. She is overloaded and working 50-60 hours a week. She is an employee. They say they do not pay overtime and do not have to pay overtime but she is expected to get those dictators current and keep them current. I say because she is an employee the federal law of a 40-hour work week and overtime apply. She has asked everyone from her team lead to the HR person and they say they do not pay overtime. I say that is not even legal if she is in fact an employee. What is correct?
Hmm, I feel shorted. I just started -- SM
with MQ. This payperiod is my 2nd one (to receive my first check on 25th). I got hired in at 8.75 cpl base. I can also earn up to 2 cpl of extra bonus money, like you are talking about, but my base rate is lower.
I am doing about 190 to 200 lines in an hour most of the time. Sometimes I can do a good bit more, if I get a certain type of report. I am typing myself REALLY SUPER HARD though to get this. I don't know if I can get an average up more than 250 lines in an hour or not. I just don't think I can, as hard as I am typing now.
I like my accounts but I think it will be quite a bit of time before I can get all the doctors down really good.
I guess congratulations to you.
Actually, this was already on the board and yes, I was shorted lines...sm
I was working for another company which OSi outsourced to, and I received a reimbursement for those lines I was shorted due to OSI's method of calculating lines, or lack thereof.
Wow..I actually trust my company..as they have never shorted me ...
after years of working there. The first two years I worked there I checked every check and it matched. If anything I was overpaid sometimes for duplicate jobs/addenda/etc. and such I didn't bill myself for that my company pays us for. Our working program has tallies available to us instantly 24/7 and they don't cheat, imagine that. No need to get snippy. It's so nice to work for a trustworthy company.
If you think you are being shorted line count
I have read some posts lately that indicate some MTs are questioning their productivity dropping no matter how much they type. I went through this same suspicion a few years ago and here is what will work. If you have Word in your computer (in my case it is Word 2000), open it up and put it at the bottom of your screen. When you finish a report, copy it and then bring up your Word page and paste it. Under Tools you will find Word Count. When you open this it will give you the option of character count with or without spaces. Choose with spaces. Take the total and divide by 65. Compare this to what your platform says you have for that report. I found consistently short line counts when checking my reports this way and left for a much better job with a very ethical, professional company. Do not risk being taken advantage of. With the competition for work these days, some companies are trying their best to keep the profits as high as they can. Hopefully, this is a rare instance, but if you want peace of mind, check your line count and know for sure.
I wish I had those options.
I wasn't exactly fired, just let go from the account. The lady who said two other people used Vista now says she never suggested I buy Vista (?) There's no arguing with her. But she knew I had Vista, and never notified me to take it back before I tried to start work. In fact, I was put in touch with a computer tech to work with my Vista. She may be under pressure to keep her name clean. They didn't offer to loan me a computer, only that I buy XP to install, but I'm honestly leery about working with that computer team now.
Your options
1. Stop working for free immediately. DIT still has to make good on your checks, but giving them hours they are not paying for is useless.
2. Find another job. If someone has bounced multiple checks, they are not someone you want to work for.
3. You have to contact authorities in their state, have you?
4. Contact the hospital/client for whom you typed and tell them you want to know where to send the bill for services you have rendered. (They don't have to pay you but this will put more pressure on DIT to come up with monies owed.)
Be VOCAL. Be a VOCAL as you can. STAY FACTUAL. Don't editorialize. On every MT site post the FACTS.
Take an ad out in their local newspaper.
Contact the local news media in their town and share your story.
Three weeks of being screwed on your pay isn't a mistake. It's theft.
There are options
....other than MQ. I was having a hard time finding a company that paid equal to TT, but at this point I'll take a penny less a line to get a full days work.
keep your options open
nm
As a mentee, you may not have many options, but check out some other
companies to see if they have a mentor program in the works. I would try to avoid OSi if at all possible. Very unstable at the moment.
They are going to work with everyone to move them to FT. There will be other options. sm
Keystrokes treats their employees very well, and would never just eliminate someone. PT positions will be redefined and changed, not eliminated completely.
Why does every post on here have to be negative? If you don't know what's what, you should not comment or read more into it.
I was just letting the OP know if they did not like Meditech there were options - nm
x
Point taken, but for some options are limited
That's one of the reasons I hate how judgmental some posts are (not you, per se, but in general). Above is the post telling the non-working TT'ers to go get 2 or 3 jobs, whatever it takes to make ends meet. And that's what I'm doing. I live rural- the Walmart is 34 miles/45 minutes away. There are a couple of jobs in town (15 miles away). In addition, depending on the work, even at slave wages for transcription, I would still make more than the town jobs pay, not to mention the added expense for gas, work attire, etc.
So I understand your point and it's valid, but there is a divide between what some people say (with your knowledge of the wage of a Walmart greeter, perhaps you?) about working 2-3 jobs if necessary and holding out for the wage that MT is truly worth.
Frankly, there are some that would look at one's decision to work for Walmart as a bad moral choice, too, considering what they've done to local wages and small mom-n-pop enterprises.
Working and not getting paid?? What are the options?
Hi,
I have a friend who is a newer MT and has been working very hard for a particular company. This company has not paid her and they owe her over $1000.00 at this point. She is a newer MT and would probably have a harder time finding something else so she is caught between a rock and a hard place. The owners of the company will NOT return her calls or emails but yet they still have her work. She does not know a lawyer and does not have the money to hire one. Does anyone have any advice for her on what she should do? I have been in a similar situation but I was finally paid and I did not work much. My family kept telling me to quit but yet I needed the experience. Any help would be appreciated. I really feel for her.
Thanks!!!
Working and not getting paid?? What are the options?
THANK YOU to all that applied. I have let my friend know to read your messages. Great suggestions!! Thanks again everyone!!!!
I switched to flexible to keep my options open. (sm)
So far I am finding the platforms others have out there are not allowing me to make as much money as I did with MQ even with the cess pool. I work for a great company now, truly fantastic people, but their platform is slow and often down for one reason or another.
I am going to give it a little longer, but may be calling to crawl back to FT with MQ when I am eligible to change classifications again. I switched from FT to PT and then flex so I am sure I will have to wait a year before I can swap around again.
I would think now is an extremely good time to at least call them and check it out. What have you got to lose?
Sure, go to Tools, Options, Save, and then look on the bottom....sm
There at the bottom you have options of using a password to modify, password to open, and read-only recommended. You can also do the same thing under File, Save As, on the border of the Save As box on the far right there is the Tools option and brings up the same options, tools, then general options. I would recommend just adding the password to it. Then when you open it, it will ask you for the password to modify or open as a read only.
Keep your options open, keep your ears to the ground
X
Mind if I ask what you're going to school for? I'm looking at my options and
am thinking about going back to school. Trying to decide what might be a good career change that would still utilize my skills or at least be an interesting line of work.
So you believe offering 2 options to clients is impossible? It's pretty cut and
dried to me. You offer Option 1 as a money-saving low rate with offshore transcription and editing. Sorry, we can't guarantee quality, but hey, you save big bucks. You then offer Option 2, quality-minded American MTs and editors, the gold standard. The rate is higher, but so is the quality of the work. Of course, you then have to make sure you hire only those who can actually maintain high quality.
You are probably right though. It wouldn't work as there no doubt are far too many companies already offshoring without the client's knowledge reaping the benefits of using low-paid foreign workers with nondiscounted line rates. Silly me.
I like Sylcount Gold. Has tons of counting options.
nm
Shapin - PT/FT schedule options, min line count??? Thanks! nm
nm
Who would you choose, Medware, Golden Isles (GIMT) or Mag Mutual? Weighing options and offers etc..
IWho do you think would be the best to work for??
That is not legal to do that. NM
:
what is legal
Contact the IRS if they want a "set in stone" schedule. If you have to give them one you are definitely an employee by IRS guidelines and they can be sued. I think you can go to IRS.gov or something on the Internet and find out about this.
This is not legal....
They can only get away with it if the employees allow that to happen. You can contact your local wage and hour division of the US Dept. of Labor for info
Legal?
Yep. The federal government made it perfectly legal for companies to sell off America thousands of jobs at a time with the WTO and NAFTA. Sweet, huh? And the companies doing it for the most part try to be hush-hush about all of it because they know how people would react. It happens more than you know.
Everything was legal
If you had read older posts - I drew the difference in what I made as an IC and what my weekly unemployment pay was - i applied for jobs every week - both online and offline. There's no scheme to it - it's just what it is. KS was only upset because they didn't know the laws in my state and they got caught in the way they handled things.
No, it's not legal
You wrote: I just don't think it's right to ask me to find a new profession for the next 12 months. Apparently it's legal, but that doesn't make it right.
I think what attorney #2 is trying to say to you is that it is NOT legal... that they cannot stretch the definition of a noncompete clause that far...
Because they CAN. It is legal. They want to see
x
Is it even legal
for them to tell you you cannot work for another company? Frankly, it is none of their business what you do in your time you are not working for them.
this is not legal
According to the IRS, whether you work as an IC or an employee, you have to be paid what is agreed upon. As an IC, you have to be paid upon a mutually-agreeable rate and as an employee (depending on the stste) they have to give you written notice of the pay change with at least 5-7 business days but, they can then change the pay.
File a claim with the employment agency in the company's state and that will fix it.
Is this legal? sm
My understanding is that employer provides necessary equipment for employee. Not so for IC, who provides his/her own equipment. But to charge an employee to use equipment to do the work of the company?
I do not think it is legal
for any company to tell you you cannot work for another company in your off-hours, provided, of course, that you do not use the original company's equipment to do so. Why are you working for such low pay? There are plenty of companies out there that will pay well if you're good.
Legal?
I don't see a problem legal-wise. Is it ethical? No.
????? Legal has nothing to do with this
board. You can start just about any thread you want on here, within reason. Do you care to name the company so others will know??
There is nothing legal to do with this. While
it is ridiculous, if she agreed to it not much to be done. Companies can offer any rate of compensation, it is up to the individual to accept or decline.
is this legal?
when i pull up patient demographics i can see that person's (along with everyone who has been to that hospital) social security number....so if i were a criminal i have the name, the date of birth, the ssn, alot of information about them in the report and a feild day with indentity theft.....surely this cannot be legal???? any thoughts?
Is this legal transcription?
If so, I answered their ad on MT jobs. They stated they would provide info on cpl upon receipt of a "viable" resume. Well, I sent my resume, got a lot of Word docs in return, but no mention of cpl. However, I did read in their material where they pay you after they get paid. Frankly, I just won't take that chance. I'm not working for a month before I get paid. It also sounded like they want you to work full time and be at their beck and call ("flexible" as they call it). Just didn't pass the smell test, IMO. More info on the work at home mom boards.
I don't think this is legal. Check it out.
x
Legal Transcription
I am a MT who may want to cross over to legal trans because of the BS...anybody know any good companies to try???
is this legal/legit?
I love the company I work for. I love the people, love the work. Only one complaint: They deduct $12.50 out of each paycheck for a total of $25. each month for rental of their software. They said they were told they had to do that if we were IC's. We use our own computers, or rent theirs, so why should we pay to use a version of Word? I have never had anyone else do this in 15 years. Also, they want to charge a fee to do direct deposit. I've never seen that charged for either. Is this Kosher or should I say something? If so, what?
No, it is *NOT* legal for one person to tell another
that they can't earn a living for a year. Here's what I would do. I would sign the noncompete agreement; however, I would cross off the part about not working for 12 months for a competitor and make a notation that your attorney has advised that this part of their contract is illegal and unenforceable. Send it back to them and see what they have to say about it. They also can't withhold severance pay for refusing to sign a contract AFTER the fact of being hired and laid off. They're opening themselves up to a lawsuit, if you ask me.
Probably legal but not ethical. nm
nm
Without your permission it is not legal.
NM
Mandatory OT? Is that even legal?
x
The recipient probably ignored the legal - sm
disclaimer contained in the email she received the letter under. Oh, yes, a company would want her working for them in a heartbeat - LOL. Follows directions, check - oops, not. Adheres to confidentiality rules, check, oops not. You're absolutely right though, it is HER letter, but HER letter that most likely came with a confidentiality disclaimer.
Is this legal, for employee to be. SM
charged a fee to use company equipment to do company work? I know IC must provide his/her own equipment, but I do remember reading that employer must provide tools of work for EMPLOYEE.
Probably just want to make sure your legal
I have had companies request this of me to verify I am a US citizen. Probably nothing to worry about.
Legal Question
Does anyone know as an MTSO if we have to retain the medical records for a former client that no longer does business with us?
Thanks
Don't know the legal aspects, but why
would you want to keep records of someone who no longer contracts your services? They have the records there. The only thing I could see is if you have to keep them for a certain time period in case the client loses them.
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