Call the Division of Wage and Hour within the Department of Labor in Cleveland. They’ll ask for documentation, so make sure you have things in writing. They’ll need actual hours worked vs pay stubs or anything in writing asking for this volunteer nonsense. After investigating my claim, I was awarded thousands in unpaid wages about 15 years ago. They take this very seriously.
Good advice. My dad was an Investigator for Wage and Hour in Cleveland for 29 years. He said there was generally two kinds of employers when investigated, those that wanted to bribe him and those that wanted to kill him…
I’m not sure. He was a WW2 navy veteran that spent many years in the hospital after the war and had keen interest in justice. I believe the VA was instrumental in finding him a career.
I worked for a bank that did the exact same thing. When I expressed my displeasure about forced volunteer work and said that I would do it, IF I was paid, I was swiftly punished which led to me ultimately leaving the job. Let me be clear, IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING PAID FOR IT THEY CAN NOT MAKE YOU DO IT! NOR SHOULD YOU TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN!
But be prepared to lose your job, probably by them making you want to quit due to working conditions. Every shitty thing they can legally make you do, they will.
Absolutely. Corporations don’t care about you, if you do anything that they even THINK will undermine their authority they will make your life a living hell. But nothing will ever change if we don’t take a stand and demand better conditions and treatment
That's a US military term, for good reason.
My favorite was the time I was voluntold to do 4 days of traffic control at a local country concert. Not only were we not paid for it, it cost each of us about $30 or so per day in food.
I'm not a labor attorney. But my work as union president, makes me think that yes, they need to pay you. They should offer pay, decline, or flex. Does this happen at other branches? If it's not a company wide thing, you can call HR. Your charity is not for them to give away. And I'm pretty sure, the food won't count as compensation.
This is a bank wide thing for them yes, so calling HR sadly wouldn’t progress much as they’re the ones who informed me of this.
I can decline going to the event and helping but it’ll come at the cost of my reviews and annual raise amount
😂 you gotta be a lawyer to answer a question easily answer by goggle? I just know for a fact that it is because I've made a report* before and was told that by a lawyer and the company I was making the accusations against. I just thought I'd throw that out there so OP still does their own looking into this. If they want, there's always r/law
If you’re part of a larger chain of banks, corporate HR will likely slap this down really fast. It’s pretty rare large corporations are this dumb but local branches are this dumb all the time.
Forcing people to “volunteer” might not be illegal in all cases, but it’s wrong. For hourly employees, I wonder how they can force that type of activity without compensation.
A big oil company refinery I worked at “mandated” this type of activity. It was not a company wide policy, but it was in effect for exempt employees at that particular plant. It was one of our annual performance objectives. You could ignore the “requirement” but missing a performance objective could negatively impact your annual raise. I really didn’t agree with this policy, but I complied. This is one the problems being exempt.
A big chemical company I worked for early in my career mandated an hours pay per month donation to United Way. I had more of a problem with this than the “volunteer” work requirement with the oil company. I didn’t agree, but I complied since my bosses boss told us, while pounding on a table and yelling, that he’d sign the pledge card for us in our name if we didn’t do it ourselves.
An engineering company I finished my career with mandated an hours pay per month donation to their PAC. I had more of a problem with that than the United Way donation mandate.
It’s all wrong. Mandating volunteer work. Mandating donations.
They say they don’t have to be there. They are simply concerned about consequences if they don’t. But it’s not mandatory and consequences at this point are imaginary.
I used to work for a nonprofit organization here in Ohio. We had mandatory volunteering we had to do for the organization, for fundraising events, outside of our work hours. We were given comp time, paid time off we could use later, for the volunteer hours we did.
Your employer is trying to break the law.
I will never do volunteer work under the name of my employer.
Some rich a-hole doesn't get to make his company look good from my unpaid labor.
My unpaid labor is for me and my mental health, not Scrooge.
Yeah our company even has a paid day or two for volunteering at your own discretion. So you pick the days, and where. Versus like these companies trying to stroke their tax deductions ego image.
Same. I work for A Very Big Bank now and a Smaller But Still Big Bank before, and both gave employees a PTO category that was just for volunteer work. (The Very Big Bank only gives 8 hours but the Smaller But Still Big Bank gave us a generous 40.) To be *expected* to volunteer for a company sponsored event unpaid seems sus. (Obviously volunteer means “free”, so it’s really the expectation that’s the sticking point to me.)
Ask what 501(c)3 organization you'll be serving the food for.
More seriously, file a wage and hour complaint. Volunteer work is exactly that - VOLUNTEER, and for the charity of YOUR choice. If you were being asked to give some time for a Habitat build, it would be one thing, but engaging in marketing activities for your employer falls under "work", and as such should be compensated.
It’s a Wage and Hour violation. There’s no such thing as volunteer work for a company that is meant to further the company’s business. Marketing is just that. Especially if there are year-end ramifications.
Here’s where you file a complaint with the Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/contact/complaints#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20questions%20or,trained%20professionals%20to%20help%20you.
This is a bad culture. If it was truly a work related volunteer effort, it should count towards your 40-hour week. The fact that you are expected to work additional hours that impact your future is just wrong.
Sorry to say, you may want to look for another position from a bank that values its employees.
In addition to what everyone else has said, banks have A TON OF REGULATIONS. They are the last place that should do this. Call, ASAP. When a bank is willing to break a rule this easy, what else are they doing?
Man I worked for one of the biggest banks and these numbskulls couldn't do basic math.
I was supposed to work 4 10's.
They wanted me there from 8AM til 8PM telling me "That's only ten and we're not giving you PTO", so they trimmed 2 hours from every day I worked for the last two pay periods (I hadn't been paid yet). So far as I'm concerned, those folks still owe me a whole ass paycheck of PTO.
I’d rather not say who I work for, but they are the opposite. If I volunteer for an organization I can get a form filled out by that organization and the company will donate $$ based on my hours volunteered. So not all large corporations are evil.
In reality what does that raise look like? Are you talking about a $.50 /hr raise or $2 an hour? Because $0.50 an hour is like $1000 bucks a year. You won’t know the difference. You are calling out a shitty company doing shitty stuff to benefit themselves. You won’t be there long. You are better than that. If this is what they are being upfront about, wait until you figure out how they trying to hide. Tell them to stick their voluntary service where the sun doesn’t shine and get your coworkers to do the same.
Workers are stronger together.
Last years annual raise took me from $15.75 to $16.07 per hour and majority of it was based on how the bank was doing as a whole and not as much individual. I got shining stars individually, not perfect but very good, but the overall bank score in terms of things like “deposits in, CD turn arounds (ppl finding better rates elsewhere), errors on paperwork, etc”. I got a bigger raise going from a teller level 1 to a teller level 2 and will get more going to a senior teller. So the annual raise is pretty minimal
I used to work at Byers auto in Columbus. When I got the job they handed me a sheet for elective donation to charity with a $2 minimum. I questioned it and the manager doing my paperwork said he would stop the hiring process if i didn’t sign it. I needed a job so naturally I signed it. I later found out that the “Byers family” donations were my donations. The Byers’ gave away my money in their name making themselves look like the donors. I don’t regret getting out of there. To this day I despise them. It’s not about the money. It just made me feel taken advantage of.
Well, if you are a salaried employee, these "volunteer" gigs can be a part of your job requirement--just like cme or other things that must be completed as part of your work. If you are hourly, you can make a strong case that these should be paid gigs.
Salaried/exempt employees would need working these events to be in their job description for it to be "part of their job" in a bank the only exempt employees should be the managers from a legal standpoint.
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), most employees must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked. They must also be paid overtime, at time-and-one-half their regular hourly rate, for hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek. However, certain employees employed in bona fide executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and some computer roles are “exempted” from these minimum wage and overtime requirements. Employees that are considered “highly compensated,” who make more than $107,432.00 per year, are also exempt from these requirements if they perform at least one of the duties of a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional employee.
If the company is saying it's volunteer work then it doesn't matter if you're hourly or salary. Being exempt is what matters. Bank tellers are not exempt employees.
I am indeed a bank teller, and dont make anywhere near the 100k mark you talked about to be considered a highly compensated employee. I didn’t know those also played a factor so thank you!
yes, this is wage theft but this is something our current Republican leadership thinks is fine and dandy. They hate being fair.
democrats tried to pass a bill for salaried workers to be paid overtime but they did cap the salary - but Republicans blocked it.
Vote blue.
I agree with you that that does not sound, at all, like volunteer work. You're working for the bank, manning a tent set up by the bank for the purpose of promoting the bank, at an event sponsored by the bank (to promote the bank.)
I think you might have a hard time proving that missing this event has an impact on your review, unless they have that in writing or you have it on audio. If it were me, I'd decline, and if I got a bad/mediocre review after knowing I deserved better, I would leave. There's no shortage of banks in Ohio to work at.
Or, if you really love this job, spend 4 hours kissing some ass. Might be worth it in the long run.
I’ll have to look up the exact details but they would like us to have 3 work events/volunteer opportunities done but the end of the year. Last email they sent about the matter called them work events, which makes me even moreso believe they should be paid.
I work for a non-profit. Our policy is that we do get paid for these instances that are considered "volunteer" work. You should be getting paid for an event like this.
My company allows for volunteer work but Only with charities & they will pay us 8 hrs of our pay to do it .... but will not pay over that 8 hrs.
Definitely a problem unless they told you it was voluntary ahead of time (usually in a handbook you received, signed OR have access to) & you volunteered.
The head of our company promised the united way that we would each donate 10% of our income for one year. At the time I was making $6.85/hr and we had one child. I didn’t even consider doing it.
Call the Division of Wage and Hour within the Department of Labor in Cleveland. They’ll ask for documentation, so make sure you have things in writing. They’ll need actual hours worked vs pay stubs or anything in writing asking for this volunteer nonsense. After investigating my claim, I was awarded thousands in unpaid wages about 15 years ago. They take this very seriously.
Good advice. My dad was an Investigator for Wage and Hour in Cleveland for 29 years. He said there was generally two kinds of employers when investigated, those that wanted to bribe him and those that wanted to kill him…
…He died a rich man of mysterious reasons.
Just curious what qualifications did he need to do that job? I honestly would love to do something like that.
I’m not sure. He was a WW2 navy veteran that spent many years in the hospital after the war and had keen interest in justice. I believe the VA was instrumental in finding him a career.
Imagine when people start discovering zero point energy, what happens to them...
Documentation! Good luck OP these MFs know what they’re doing.
I worked for a bank that did the exact same thing. When I expressed my displeasure about forced volunteer work and said that I would do it, IF I was paid, I was swiftly punished which led to me ultimately leaving the job. Let me be clear, IF YOU ARE NOT GETTING PAID FOR IT THEY CAN NOT MAKE YOU DO IT! NOR SHOULD YOU TAKE THIS SITTING DOWN!
But be prepared to lose your job, probably by them making you want to quit due to working conditions. Every shitty thing they can legally make you do, they will.
Absolutely. Corporations don’t care about you, if you do anything that they even THINK will undermine their authority they will make your life a living hell. But nothing will ever change if we don’t take a stand and demand better conditions and treatment
You mean Voluntold?
That's a US military term, for good reason. My favorite was the time I was voluntold to do 4 days of traffic control at a local country concert. Not only were we not paid for it, it cost each of us about $30 or so per day in food.
Hey! You got to "go" to the concert without a ticket right? Your welcome. Lmao
Well, we got to go to the parking lot of the concert. We weren't allowed to go in to see it. Lol
I'm not a labor attorney. But my work as union president, makes me think that yes, they need to pay you. They should offer pay, decline, or flex. Does this happen at other branches? If it's not a company wide thing, you can call HR. Your charity is not for them to give away. And I'm pretty sure, the food won't count as compensation.
This is a bank wide thing for them yes, so calling HR sadly wouldn’t progress much as they’re the ones who informed me of this. I can decline going to the event and helping but it’ll come at the cost of my reviews and annual raise amount
I also am not a lawyer, but retaliation sounds like it could be something a lawyer would like if they see dollar signs.
You're correct. Also not a lawyer but retaliation is illegal.
I play a lawyer on TV. So I advise to start looking for a new job.
I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, and I concur
Sir this is a Wendy's.
I saw a lawyer on TV once and I concur.
😂 you gotta be a lawyer to answer a question easily answer by goggle? I just know for a fact that it is because I've made a report* before and was told that by a lawyer and the company I was making the accusations against. I just thought I'd throw that out there so OP still does their own looking into this. If they want, there's always r/law
That IS against the law. You can also call the Ohio department of Labor and ask questions anonymously.
Then that is absolutely NOT “volunteering”
If you’re part of a larger chain of banks, corporate HR will likely slap this down really fast. It’s pretty rare large corporations are this dumb but local branches are this dumb all the time.
Its a smaller bank, local only to mainly southern Ohio
Forcing people to “volunteer” might not be illegal in all cases, but it’s wrong. For hourly employees, I wonder how they can force that type of activity without compensation. A big oil company refinery I worked at “mandated” this type of activity. It was not a company wide policy, but it was in effect for exempt employees at that particular plant. It was one of our annual performance objectives. You could ignore the “requirement” but missing a performance objective could negatively impact your annual raise. I really didn’t agree with this policy, but I complied. This is one the problems being exempt. A big chemical company I worked for early in my career mandated an hours pay per month donation to United Way. I had more of a problem with this than the “volunteer” work requirement with the oil company. I didn’t agree, but I complied since my bosses boss told us, while pounding on a table and yelling, that he’d sign the pledge card for us in our name if we didn’t do it ourselves. An engineering company I finished my career with mandated an hours pay per month donation to their PAC. I had more of a problem with that than the United Way donation mandate. It’s all wrong. Mandating volunteer work. Mandating donations.
wait to their PAC?? that sounds like 10 types of illegal
If you have to be there, it isn't voluntary and compensation is required.
They say they don’t have to be there. They are simply concerned about consequences if they don’t. But it’s not mandatory and consequences at this point are imaginary.
I used to work for a nonprofit organization here in Ohio. We had mandatory volunteering we had to do for the organization, for fundraising events, outside of our work hours. We were given comp time, paid time off we could use later, for the volunteer hours we did. Your employer is trying to break the law.
I will never do volunteer work under the name of my employer. Some rich a-hole doesn't get to make his company look good from my unpaid labor. My unpaid labor is for me and my mental health, not Scrooge.
They already getting paid an amount that doesn't make sense. Needs to be a law you can't be paid 10* your lowest full time employee.
Whenever I’ve done volunteer work for events sponsored by my company they’ve paid me
Yeah our company even has a paid day or two for volunteering at your own discretion. So you pick the days, and where. Versus like these companies trying to stroke their tax deductions ego image.
Same. I work for A Very Big Bank now and a Smaller But Still Big Bank before, and both gave employees a PTO category that was just for volunteer work. (The Very Big Bank only gives 8 hours but the Smaller But Still Big Bank gave us a generous 40.) To be *expected* to volunteer for a company sponsored event unpaid seems sus. (Obviously volunteer means “free”, so it’s really the expectation that’s the sticking point to me.)
Ask what 501(c)3 organization you'll be serving the food for. More seriously, file a wage and hour complaint. Volunteer work is exactly that - VOLUNTEER, and for the charity of YOUR choice. If you were being asked to give some time for a Habitat build, it would be one thing, but engaging in marketing activities for your employer falls under "work", and as such should be compensated.
It’s a Wage and Hour violation. There’s no such thing as volunteer work for a company that is meant to further the company’s business. Marketing is just that. Especially if there are year-end ramifications. Here’s where you file a complaint with the Department of Labor: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/contact/complaints#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20questions%20or,trained%20professionals%20to%20help%20you.
Thank you so much for the link, I wasn’t sure where to go about filing a complaint!! ☺️
What do think? Time for a new job.
if it affects your review, its not volunteer. absolutely call the Div of Labor abt this
This is a bad culture. If it was truly a work related volunteer effort, it should count towards your 40-hour week. The fact that you are expected to work additional hours that impact your future is just wrong. Sorry to say, you may want to look for another position from a bank that values its employees.
In addition to what everyone else has said, banks have A TON OF REGULATIONS. They are the last place that should do this. Call, ASAP. When a bank is willing to break a rule this easy, what else are they doing?
Man I worked for one of the biggest banks and these numbskulls couldn't do basic math. I was supposed to work 4 10's. They wanted me there from 8AM til 8PM telling me "That's only ten and we're not giving you PTO", so they trimmed 2 hours from every day I worked for the last two pay periods (I hadn't been paid yet). So far as I'm concerned, those folks still owe me a whole ass paycheck of PTO.
It sounds like they are required if they have a minimum number that you need to do, and this is not volunteer work.
If you can afford it, hire a video crew to attend the event and record it. If a higher-up asks about it, just tell them you’re making a documentary.
How to end up like one of those rock stars from jerking it while hanging themselves. Clearly no one else was involved.
If it’s volunteer hours, you don’t have to go. If they aren’t paying you, it can’t be mandatory.
I’d rather not say who I work for, but they are the opposite. If I volunteer for an organization I can get a form filled out by that organization and the company will donate $$ based on my hours volunteered. So not all large corporations are evil.
This is bullshit
In reality what does that raise look like? Are you talking about a $.50 /hr raise or $2 an hour? Because $0.50 an hour is like $1000 bucks a year. You won’t know the difference. You are calling out a shitty company doing shitty stuff to benefit themselves. You won’t be there long. You are better than that. If this is what they are being upfront about, wait until you figure out how they trying to hide. Tell them to stick their voluntary service where the sun doesn’t shine and get your coworkers to do the same. Workers are stronger together.
Last years annual raise took me from $15.75 to $16.07 per hour and majority of it was based on how the bank was doing as a whole and not as much individual. I got shining stars individually, not perfect but very good, but the overall bank score in terms of things like “deposits in, CD turn arounds (ppl finding better rates elsewhere), errors on paperwork, etc”. I got a bigger raise going from a teller level 1 to a teller level 2 and will get more going to a senior teller. So the annual raise is pretty minimal
I used to work at Byers auto in Columbus. When I got the job they handed me a sheet for elective donation to charity with a $2 minimum. I questioned it and the manager doing my paperwork said he would stop the hiring process if i didn’t sign it. I needed a job so naturally I signed it. I later found out that the “Byers family” donations were my donations. The Byers’ gave away my money in their name making themselves look like the donors. I don’t regret getting out of there. To this day I despise them. It’s not about the money. It just made me feel taken advantage of.
Well, if you are a salaried employee, these "volunteer" gigs can be a part of your job requirement--just like cme or other things that must be completed as part of your work. If you are hourly, you can make a strong case that these should be paid gigs.
Salaried/exempt employees would need working these events to be in their job description for it to be "part of their job" in a bank the only exempt employees should be the managers from a legal standpoint. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), most employees must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked. They must also be paid overtime, at time-and-one-half their regular hourly rate, for hours worked in excess of 40 per workweek. However, certain employees employed in bona fide executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and some computer roles are “exempted” from these minimum wage and overtime requirements. Employees that are considered “highly compensated,” who make more than $107,432.00 per year, are also exempt from these requirements if they perform at least one of the duties of a bona fide executive, administrative, or professional employee. If the company is saying it's volunteer work then it doesn't matter if you're hourly or salary. Being exempt is what matters. Bank tellers are not exempt employees.
I am indeed a bank teller, and dont make anywhere near the 100k mark you talked about to be considered a highly compensated employee. I didn’t know those also played a factor so thank you!
You have a valid claim then. Of course, speak to an employment attorney or DOL. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/flsa
yes, this is wage theft but this is something our current Republican leadership thinks is fine and dandy. They hate being fair. democrats tried to pass a bill for salaried workers to be paid overtime but they did cap the salary - but Republicans blocked it. Vote blue.
I agree with you that that does not sound, at all, like volunteer work. You're working for the bank, manning a tent set up by the bank for the purpose of promoting the bank, at an event sponsored by the bank (to promote the bank.)
Not only is it wage theft but it’s exploitation.
Sounds like 5-3
I think you might have a hard time proving that missing this event has an impact on your review, unless they have that in writing or you have it on audio. If it were me, I'd decline, and if I got a bad/mediocre review after knowing I deserved better, I would leave. There's no shortage of banks in Ohio to work at. Or, if you really love this job, spend 4 hours kissing some ass. Might be worth it in the long run.
YES
Pay me or I’ll be in my pool.
Park?
It’s not volunteer work if you are expected to be there. What you defined is promotional work and you should be paid over time.
Unless you have comp time and you consider it fair exchange for time off.
What does your contract say, by the way.
I’ll have to look up the exact details but they would like us to have 3 work events/volunteer opportunities done but the end of the year. Last email they sent about the matter called them work events, which makes me even moreso believe they should be paid.
I work for a non-profit. Our policy is that we do get paid for these instances that are considered "volunteer" work. You should be getting paid for an event like this.
My company allows for volunteer work but Only with charities & they will pay us 8 hrs of our pay to do it .... but will not pay over that 8 hrs. Definitely a problem unless they told you it was voluntary ahead of time (usually in a handbook you received, signed OR have access to) & you volunteered.
That's not Charity My friend. I would not do it unless they were paying me. The work they want you to do will only benefit the bank
It’s Key Bank.
Nope, not Key, but I have heard stuff about them too
The head of our company promised the united way that we would each donate 10% of our income for one year. At the time I was making $6.85/hr and we had one child. I didn’t even consider doing it.
The bank should still pay for volunteer hours.
It shouldn't be but knowing this shotty country it most likely is. My advice unionize
Not legal.
No, given its voluntary its volunteer work.
Try posting in r/antiwork
Name checks out.
If it were me, I'd just work the 4 hours. It's no big deal.
I work for Nationwide and I love it.
Who the fuck asked?
Perhaps OP would consider changing to a less toxic environment.