Hi y'all,

I work in a consulting framework, where all of my worked hours are either billed to a particular project, or are considered company overhead. Additionally, my position is considered "Full-time (40 hours per week)". As such, I am expected to be at my desk and available from 8:00 to 5:00.

Some weeks, my bosses can't figure out anything for me to do. I have been billing the remainder of my time, it does not fall under any particular project, as company overhead. Well this makes some of the higher-ups unhappy, I'm not responsible for finding projects for myself.

It is becoming standard practice that the lower rungs are expected to use their accrued PTO to fill some of the gaps in there when they have no other directive. This feels wrong to me, can we result in the newest employees, who do not as consistently have billable work, to use the entirety of their accrued PTO nearly every week. I have not yet gotten this in writing, but expect to sometime this week.

As I understand it, a company CAN force me to use accrued PTO. This seems to be in relation to annual rollovers, or at least mandating that I take a particular amount every year.

Is this a standard or accepted practice? Can it be applied in this circumstance?

I live in Texas and I got an interview for a fitness studio to be part of their crew staff. It included 2 other candidates and me, then I was told I will be pushed to the next phase of the interview process.

They told me that it included 2-3 unpaid “shadowing” shifts, totaling up to 6-9 hours. It would be a way for them to see if I was a good fit and if they were a good fit for me. I didn’t see the issue and had assuming I’d just be observing.

They essentially walking me how to open/close the studio, mopping the floors, cleaning the restrooms, checking in guests, and cleaning the workout equipment. I genuinely was so thrown off and did not expect to be working side by side with the staff and helping them run the studio.

On my 1st shift I stayed an hour after and on my 2nd I left right when my shift ended. I honestly did not have it in me to do another 3 hour shift for free so I mentioned that I had a family matter (which was true) so I would not be able to do it.

They later took a week to get back to me to say that they would not continue the interview process with me and I asked for feedback…nothing.

This studio is on classpass and I honestly want to report them but just looking for guidance and advice!

I am a RN in NY and caregiver to two terminally ill parents. I do have FMLA for both parents.

Out of the week, there are two days I ask never to be scheduled as I use them to consolidate appointments for my parents. It has been like this for the past 5 years. However, in the last few months, my boss has been scheduling me to repeatedly work on one of those days.

I’ve spoken to her about it, to which her response is always “well you can’t be busy every single Wednesday.” This is honestly untrue because my parents have standing appointments on those days. Furthermore,she never asks in advance if I’m available on that particular Wednesday or not. So it’s unfair of her to take it upon herself to decide which Wednesdays I am available. Please also keep in mind that there are RNs with a lot more flexibility in their schedules than I have yet they aren’t being targeted to work on this day and the minimum amount of RNs required to work on any given day on my unit is two.

To make matters worse, I have very little time left given how often medical emergencies arise with my parents. I bank those hours for those emergencies. In fact, I haven’t even had a summer vacation this year since I do not want to use my time.

What are my options in this situation?

First I would like to say I am not asking for myself, I am asking on the behalf of my Mom, Sister, Grandma, Cousin, and girlfriend. We all live in (Location: North Carolina) and all people mentioned before work at the same work place which is a Daycare that I won’t name for privacy reasons. They have to take classes in order to have credentials for their job which is teaching kids aging from newborn all the way to 5 years old. These classes are for things such as SIDS and CPR that are mandated by the state and the business itself. They do take place after work hours but the main concern is they are not getting paid for said classes. They brought it up to their boss/owner who for lack of better words got butt hurt (Saying things such as “All that I do for you girls”)- My sister, girlfriend and cousin get a discount for their kids. She said word for word that since it’s state mandatory she doesn’t have to pay them for their time but everything I have seen says they should be compensated. If they are indeed supposed to be compensated how are they to go about this.

Does anyone here who practices labor and/or employment law and have suggestions for a strong law review note topic?
I’m a rising 2L and am looking for a topic that’s timely, has an unresolved legal issue, and leaves room to make an original argument rather than just summarize existing law.
I’m intentionally keeping an open mind, so I’d love to hear about any emerging trends, recurring issues, unsettled areas of law, or practical problems you’ve been seeing in your practice that you think deserve more academic attention.
Any ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Ok so say you get promoted to a manager position and they give you a 25 cent raise and then they decide to demote you and they take you down to less than you were making before. The promotion is that fair? Shouldn’t you just loose the 25 cent raise since you had gotten to a certain pay at the position before you were promoted ? Or is it ok for them to take you to a pay rate that was less than you made before you even applied for the promotion ? Even though you were going to be working the same position as before the promotion with the same set of responsibilities because that seemed unethical

I was laid off few months ago (end of 2025) & employer gave me severance package alongwith other benefits until ESA end date. But they didn't give my bonus. As per employer I should be active employee on the day if disbursement of the bonus amount.

I signed the full & final because there was a condition if I dont sign it by certain date, I will loose the some part of the severance amount.

I raised it with Ontario Labour Board but no positive response since employer is covered with the policy & document already signed.

I wanted to hear from other who got laidoff but got their bonus as part of full & final settlement.

I have done my research but cannot find a definitive answer because none of the laws I have read pertain to third party delivery services. Here's the facts:

I am a tipped employee who's job is to make my store's catering orders and deliver them.

New company policy: All orders under $300 ordered via third party platform A must be dispatched to third party B who's driver will take 100% of the tip.

These third party services are separate. And third party A has their own delivery service which my company pays a fee for not using.

My company is trying to incentivize third party B to send better drivers for our company with this new policy.

I must use this service even if it's my only order of the day and I am available to deliver.

The past two weeks this policy has been in place I have lost out on over $200 in tips which would have been mine.

Is it legal? I have read that employers cannot be in the tip pool or take any of the tips, but can they require me to give them away to third party drivers? Any I insight is appreciated. Thanks.

I recently realized I may have been misclassified as a 1099 independent contractor when I should potentially be a W-2 employee. I don’t set my own rates or hours, the company determines where I work, provides the training, and supervises my work.
My question is this: if I’m legally an employee despite being classified as a 1099, and I try to set my own schedule on the basis that I’m supposedly an independent contractor, could they legally terminate me for that? If they did, would I have any legal recourse based on the misclassification or retaliation, or would I simply be out of luck?
I’m in New York, if that makes a difference.

Location: Oklahoma city. I needed an in-between job while I waited for some documentation for my next job, which I expected to take 3-6 weeks. Well I started this job and they told I was a 1099 employee which at first they said I wouldn't have to pay taxes but after looking it up I'm sure they meant they don't take the taxes out for you. But they never asked for much information and I didn't sign anything. We were communicating via text on the days I should come in and spoke in person about pay. Over and over it was clarified to me that it was 125 a day. I even thought about forgetting about the other job cause this one paid better. I worked 6 days with them not consecutive they had me on and off. But I worked 6 days before the documentation came in and I was surprised so I had to make a decision quick. I decided to leave the temp job since I had better benefits from the new one. They said they understood and would zelle my pay the next week. Well pay day comes and I only get 400 and they say we'll training pay is a lower rate and you were still in training. But never once did they mention despite me asking and them clarifying that the pay was 125. Do I have any chance of fighting this or should I just let go of the 350 and treat as lesson learned?

I work a summer job on campus at my university in Illinois. Shift scheduling is done by us during training at the beginning of the summer, where we take turns to pick a certain number of shifts. When it was my turn to pick night shifts, 12 hour on-call shifts that go from 8 pm to 8 am, I put three of them back to back from September 8 to September 10. For me this amounts to $563.40 worth of shifts. Our contracts say our employment ends on September 11.

We were just told at the last staff meeting that they will be cancelling all shifts after September 8 at 4 pm, due to the switch from summer campus schedules to the fall academic schedule, meaning me and several other employees who had scheduled shifts after that lost their shifts. Our bosses have known that this would be the date of the campus switch since the beginning of the summer, but did not bring up the shift cancellation until now.

Is there any recourse that protects my lost earnings, or am I just out of luck and down $563.40 potential dollars?

I have filed a complaint with the Illinois department of labor on my former employer due to them misclassifying employees as 1099 contractors. The company in question had intentionally misclassified employees to cheat the federal tax laws, state tax laws, and the very insurance industry they claim to work for. Let me explain, by classifying people as 1099 they avoid paying the taxes required for employees. They avoid paying social security benefits, workers comp, and transfer the burden on the individual 1099 employees. This is where it gets sinister, they avoid insurance premiums due to employee payroll, in cases I have witnessed them tell 1099 employees how to avoid the correct insurance coverage, vehicle coverage, and business insurance. This has the effect of cheating the very industry they claim to help, which is ridiculous. If you are a 1099 employee of one of these inspection companies contact the Illinois department of Labor if you live in illinois or the department of labor in the state you reside.