I applied for an electrical helper job and on my first day they had me wiring up outlets and light fixtures. I continued doing electrical work for about 3 months, then they put me on a different team where I basically dug ditches and crawled around in crawlspace pulling a 100 foot long 2 inch thick cable and routing it. Then they gave up any pretenses of actually using me as an electrical helper and assigned me to do demolition work on a property the company's new owner has bought and is going to use as a rental property. He is not paying the company for the work. The workers are getting paid the same amount they would if they were working on other jobs. I swung a sledgehammer to the point that I could barely make a fist the next day. I'm learning absolutely nothing about electrical work and destroying my body so that the owner of the company can make even more money off renting the place out without even paying for a contract to remodel it.
I signed up to do electrical work, not demolish houses and haul 50 pound slabs of concrete. I could handle it when I had to dig ditches and run wire because I at least was taught a lot about the electrical side of the work I was assisting in. But for three weeks I've been doing absolutely nothing resembling electrical work. At one point I was using a hammer and a crowbar to pry waterproofing that was bonded to a brick wall for 3 hours straight. I use one of my tools that I bought about once every 3 days on the site. And it's usually a measuring tape. Because I'm not doing anything that requires an electrically oriented set of tools.
Am I wrong and I just have to pay my dues to the owner? Or am I just being exploited for what's essentially a free remodel of a property that is being worked on just so the owner can make money off it?
EDIT: If I didn't explain it clearly enough, the owner of the company is essentially paying nothing in terms of labor for the entire remodel. The employees working the site are not making anything that the company wouldn't already be paying them to work on other jobsites doing actual electrical work or carpentry etc. He is essentially having the labor done for free. He is not paying anything he wouldn't already be paying the employees he assigned to the job.