I work for a large unionized chemical company which requires 12 hour swing shifts, but the thing that confuses me is that in our union contract, we are required to be at work 30 minutes before our shift starts.
Now, this isn’t like 30 minutes to dick around and get dressed or whatever, this is dressed and ready to work half an hour before so we can have a 2 minute conversation about what happened the previous shift and give the person leaving a chance to change (they still have to stay the whole shift). We don’t get paid for this (as stated in our contract), but are somehow supposed to be compensated with an hourly “shift differential” which equates to less than half of what being paid for it would give us.
My union rep doesn’t give a shit, in fact even fought me on the subject when I asked why the union didn’t try and let people get paid for being at work.
I’m just wondering what the deal is. Because it’s in a contract is it legal? It just confuses me because I’d very much like to show up ready for my shift and give myself an extra half hour of sleep.