So a bit of background. I have worked for a pizza company in Colorado for 18ish years at this point and we recently got a new owner. Under the previous owner we were (probably illegally) considered “independant contractors”, as “independant contractors” we were all told that we wouldn't make overtime at all, and I'm not sure if I'd be able to make a claim on any of that since I wasn't smart about logging my own hours and I am pretty sure they aren't keeping the records that far back.
That being said we recently got a new owner though and all signed W4s.
For the past few months I have worked between two of the locations getting around 40+ to 50+ hours a week between the two stores. When the new owner came in they told us that if we worked 40+ hours at one location we would get overtime, but if we did 40+ hours split between locations that they weren't required to pay overtime. Am I crazy in thinking this isn't accurate? If not would I need to confront the owner about this before making a claim with the Department of Labor? Part of me wants to because as far as I can tell it would stop them from being able to feign ignorance (meaning they actually get fined instead of the state letting it slide), but I'm a bit worried about retaliation so I wonder if I should just make the claim and start looking into a new job?
Also when I went to claim my accrued sick leave hours I had for a surgery I recently had and paid out of pocket for (we don't get any kind of insurance) none of my accrual hours were listed on our pay portal thing. I'm still waiting on them to get back to me about that, but I find it really shady none of them were being recorded and at this point I have wondered if they should also being paying for some kind of insurance for us but are trying to justify not doing so under the claim that because each store is “its own entity” they don't have to (namely Pizza Place #4 is a physically different business than Pizza Place #6, even though they share the same name and the owner seems to be the same for all stores).
Another thing they are talking about doing is that, if you are a manager (as I am) and come in to cover the shift of a driver or insider they are telling us that our wage will be reduced back down to minimum wage for that shift. I think it is dumb because we have enough staffing issues as it is, but is that legal to do? I also wonder how it would affect the calculations for overtime pay.
They also have a company policy that states “delivery drivers don't get breaks”, and now that we are W4 employees this doesn't sound legal. They are using the fact that drivers “take a break” in their car driving to the deliveries to justify it. We also have no kind of policy regarding duty free lunch breaks or even breaks as a whole as far as I remember.
Another issue I am seeing is that on certain school pre-orders that we aren't ringing up in-store but that we are making (the owner is ringing them up himself) that we aren't getting the tips from those order any longer, though the “HR” person did tell me some of them were tipped. I did bring that up to make sure my drivers get them but as of yet haven't heard anything back from the owner aside from “I'll look into it”.
Frankly, after 18 years I am tired of being fucked by these people, especially after recently being passed up for a promotion by someone who has 1/5th the time at the company as me and who would have been 5 years old when I started. What can I do to fuck them back for once?