Employer is based in OH. Employees are classified as salaried non-exempt and there has never been an hourly monitoring system, until now. Employees would track hours done on single projects though. Many fellow employees worked over 40 hours for literal years without realizing they are entitled to OT. Employer also had this “bonus program” where employees would be paid in one-time bonus payments for work done. We were told not to enter in our hours for those bonus cases as the “hours did not count.” Even on regular case load, analysts will regularly work over 40 hour weeks.
fast forward to employer putting in a clock in/out system. We are now being told not to work over 40 hours. Funny how all of a sudden not working over 40 is very important. How can I communicate with fellow employees that they were the victims of wage theft without even knowing for years? How do I tell them they worked years of OT they were entitled to? I'm hoping with this new system that employees start to realize how problematic this was.