Timeline for What are the legal and ethical implications of "padding" pay with extra hours to compensate for unpaid work?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
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| Oct 21, 2016 at 4:56 | comment | added | Nick Gammon | I agree with this. Initially the arrangement was that the OP worked for the experience, rather than cash. Trying to revert the arrangement to being paid for cash by fudging timesheets after the event could end badly for the OP and also his/her boss. As an analogy, if you engage a tradesman to (say) unblock your toilet, and then don't pay him, that doesn't give him the right to break into your house and steal goods to make up the outstanding debt. | |
| Oct 20, 2016 at 8:14 | history | edited | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 20, 2016 at 8:08 | history | edited | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 20, 2016 at 8:03 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | ... I would say the main danger, in the unlikely event it comes to a criminal prosection, is that it's found you were a volunteer. This is after all the "official" position: the employee agreed to start work as a volunteer on the expectation of being employed Real Soon Now. A court may or may not agree with the employer's interpretation, that there was no employment until the paperwork was done: clearly sometimes courts do disagree with such interpretations, where employers are flagrantly trying to evade employment law. | |
| Oct 20, 2016 at 7:50 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | @T.Verron: if the prosecutor and/or court accepts that you really worked the hours then you may be in a better position than if they don't accept that. The worst case is that they don't accept that, and it's not hard to find people who've been jailed for timesheet fraud in cases where the court has found that they didn't work the hours. But I'm not aware of an identical case to cite. Note that if it's a sure-fire thing that any court would find you really worked the hours then you still don't have to massage your timesheets, you can just claim the money under FLSA or whatever. | |
| Oct 20, 2016 at 7:45 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | @O.R.Mapper: padding the hours is fraud. If the employee doesn't pad the hours, then the employee hasn't done anything fraudulent. AFAIK no, it is not the employee's responsibility to verify the authority, but it is the employee's responsibility not to committ a crime in the process of working around their boss's failings. | |
| Oct 20, 2016 at 7:33 | comment | added | T. Verron | Is there any precedent of some employee going to jail from this kind of situation? | |
| Oct 20, 2016 at 7:29 | comment | added | O. R. Mapper | "your boss: had no authority to hire you for the work without approval; worst case would never have got permission to hire you for the original work; therefore is knowingly defrauding the University. You're both involved in criminal fraud" - wait, is it really the employee's obligation to verify the employer has the authority to hire someone? That sounds like any employee can be charged with criminal fraud at any time, also without an hour-padding scheme as described here. | |
| Oct 19, 2016 at 23:46 | history | edited | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 19, 2016 at 23:32 | history | edited | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 19, 2016 at 23:26 | history | edited | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Oct 19, 2016 at 23:21 | history | answered | Steve Jessop | CC BY-SA 3.0 |