#1 ·
Dear all, I am seeking guidance.
While serving as an interim manager, I was under a standard full-time employment contract, which meant I was entitled to overtime pay. An IRS advisor even confirmed this in a written opinion.
I was pulling 16-hour days. In the meantime, some "friendly" former colleagues decided to bury the company under a mountain of anonymous regulatory complaints regarding missing documentation—paperwork the municipal utility company should have had finalized by January 1st, 2008, per city ordinance. My term didn't even begin until April 2011, long after those deadlines passed. Nevertheless, the labor inspectors and both the local courts and the Supreme Court hammered both me and the firm. We all paid the fines. Once I saw the extent of the mess they were pinning on me, I decided to start calculating and billing my own overtime, up to the 180-hour annual limit. It was September at the time; I missed the window to request additional overtime authorization from the Department of Labor. That was my mistake, my oversight. Then, things took a turn for the worse. After I won the competitive selection process and was finally appointed as the permanent director, they started slashing my salary. A certain ombudsman—who committed a legally punishable offense by posting her response containing all my private, sensitive data on the office bulletin board for every single employee to see—decided to make an example of me. I had implemented real order at the company; we slashed monthly fuel costs from $9.00 net down to 16-$633 gross... among many other things. When I wrote to defend my dignity, this woman replied with "terrifying" figures claiming I had caused massive losses to the firm. She went so far as to write at the bottom of her response that the document should be distributed to everyone, multiplied and shared with the staff, and tacked it right onto the public notice board. I didn't want to drive up costs for her, the company, or the newly appointed director. Now, following a corporate reorganization of the utility company, they’ve cut me from the organizational chart despite the fact that my expertise in civil engineering is essential. I am currently working through my notice period. And by some "miracle," my previous overtime claims have suddenly surfaced in one of three anonymous complaints filed with the Department of Justice!!!! The other two are completely baseless, but they clearly want to destroy me—not just psychologically, as they have via six years of bullying, but physically too. I am holding onto my tablet so I don't do something foolish. It is certain that they will pursue this specific overtime complaint.
I ask for your help and advice:
1. Can the claim of "damaging the company" cover the total amount of overtime paid, or is it limited to the portion exceeding the allowed 30 hours per month?
2. Do I have the right to file a report with the District Attorney against the anonymous false accusers regarding the other two complaints?
3. Is it too late to report the improper wage payments from early 2012 to the Department of Labor?
4. What about filing a private lawsuit against this lady for libel regarding her illegal publication of my personal data to the entire staff?
5. Given that both the company and I already paid fines for documents that should have been established three years before my tenure (general technical requirements, employee handbooks, etc.), is it too late to act? Those court rulings became final in the fall of 2011. Do I have any standing to sue under contract law, given that the organizational structure clearly defines who is responsible for what? Who failed to perform their duties, and why was I the one hit with the penalty?
Thank you very much for any advice.
While serving as an interim manager, I was under a standard full-time employment contract, which meant I was entitled to overtime pay. An IRS advisor even confirmed this in a written opinion.
I was pulling 16-hour days. In the meantime, some "friendly" former colleagues decided to bury the company under a mountain of anonymous regulatory complaints regarding missing documentation—paperwork the municipal utility company should have had finalized by January 1st, 2008, per city ordinance. My term didn't even begin until April 2011, long after those deadlines passed. Nevertheless, the labor inspectors and both the local courts and the Supreme Court hammered both me and the firm. We all paid the fines. Once I saw the extent of the mess they were pinning on me, I decided to start calculating and billing my own overtime, up to the 180-hour annual limit. It was September at the time; I missed the window to request additional overtime authorization from the Department of Labor. That was my mistake, my oversight. Then, things took a turn for the worse. After I won the competitive selection process and was finally appointed as the permanent director, they started slashing my salary. A certain ombudsman—who committed a legally punishable offense by posting her response containing all my private, sensitive data on the office bulletin board for every single employee to see—decided to make an example of me. I had implemented real order at the company; we slashed monthly fuel costs from $9.00 net down to 16-$633 gross... among many other things. When I wrote to defend my dignity, this woman replied with "terrifying" figures claiming I had caused massive losses to the firm. She went so far as to write at the bottom of her response that the document should be distributed to everyone, multiplied and shared with the staff, and tacked it right onto the public notice board. I didn't want to drive up costs for her, the company, or the newly appointed director. Now, following a corporate reorganization of the utility company, they’ve cut me from the organizational chart despite the fact that my expertise in civil engineering is essential. I am currently working through my notice period. And by some "miracle," my previous overtime claims have suddenly surfaced in one of three anonymous complaints filed with the Department of Justice!!!! The other two are completely baseless, but they clearly want to destroy me—not just psychologically, as they have via six years of bullying, but physically too. I am holding onto my tablet so I don't do something foolish. It is certain that they will pursue this specific overtime complaint.
I ask for your help and advice:
1. Can the claim of "damaging the company" cover the total amount of overtime paid, or is it limited to the portion exceeding the allowed 30 hours per month?
2. Do I have the right to file a report with the District Attorney against the anonymous false accusers regarding the other two complaints?
3. Is it too late to report the improper wage payments from early 2012 to the Department of Labor?
4. What about filing a private lawsuit against this lady for libel regarding her illegal publication of my personal data to the entire staff?
5. Given that both the company and I already paid fines for documents that should have been established three years before my tenure (general technical requirements, employee handbooks, etc.), is it too late to act? Those court rulings became final in the fall of 2011. Do I have any standing to sue under contract law, given that the organizational structure clearly defines who is responsible for what? Who failed to perform their duties, and why was I the one hit with the penalty?
Thank you very much for any advice.