Legal Question in Employment Law in Indiana
Employer Changing My Schedule Randomly. What To Do?
I use to be a supervisor for the company I am employed with. For personal reasons I chose to step down several months ago. I was going to leave the company, but was asked by the Manager to stay and work Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 12hr shifts from 6A to 7P. I agreed instead of leaving. Now I get frequent calls from him demanding to change my hours and/or routine assignments very frequently and often to fill in at other positions due to staffing shortages instead of doing the job I am hired to do. This is always with little or no notice calling me at home the night before I am scheduled to work and on my days off. Hmmm I do have a life and personal committments too and these changes are NOT reasonable changes. If I say no, I am forced to do this basically against my will or recieve threats that this is what needs to be done...or else. What recourse do I have or what should I do. This is very unfair I feel. I can't just do everything he wants at a drop of a dime with no notice...yet I feel my job is at risk if I don't...and my Manager makes his threats very clear without coming right out and saying...''I'll fire you if you don't cooperate''. Thanks for your advise in this matter.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Employer Changing My Schedule Randomly. What To Do?
I can't fully answer your question here but will speak generally to the question:
1. Indiana is an "at will" employment state which means an employer can fire an employee for good reason, bad reason or no reason but not an unlawful reason. If the employer fires you for a bad reason or no reason, your recourse is unemployment compensation. If an employer fires you for an unlawful reason, your recourse is typically a claim made through the EEOC or a lawsuit in federal court or both. An unlawful reason is typically racial, sexual, religion, disability or age. These are all federal prohibitions.
2. The other exception to all of this is if you're a member of a union. Typically, in a union shop, you'd have access to the grievance procedure.
3. You may be entitled to compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act. It's not clear whether you're being paid for the overtime.
At some point, it sounds like you're going to have to confront your employer head on by asking to sit down with them and work out reasonable work schedule terms or find other work. If you're a valuable enough employee, I would think they'd rather accomodate your schedule than replace you.
Good luck.
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