Tech Writers - salaried or hourly?

Subject: Tech Writers - salaried or hourly?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 08:50:53 -0400


Barbara Yanez reports: <<My company is insisting that my assistant, a junior
tech writer - degreed but fresh out of college, is to be hourly and not
salaried. She does professional level work - albeit entry-level. This is
strange. I have never heard of this.>>

It's not a familiar situation to me for a long-term, non-contractor
arrangement, though "punching a time card" certainly has precedents in other
industries, particularly if the employer really does pay for all hours,
including overtime. You didn't provide enough details about whether this is
a permanent position and so on, and I'm not a lawyer, but this sounds an
awful lot like "do you think that if nobody complains, we can get away
without paying this person any benefits?" If so, it's very probably illegal;
Microsoft (among others) got dinged badly for trying this a few years back.

Though I'm not a lawyer, I read a recent summary of precisely this kind of
practice that contains considerable additional useful information for
freelancers: Clements, R. 2002. Definining the employee status of
independent contractors in the U.S.: a review and report on the legal issues
for technical communicators. Technical Communication 49(2):181-192.

You might want to mention the potential problem to your employer in a
nonconfrontational way (supported by the STC article), and point out that
the legal penalties can be heavy. Of course, there's a risk in bringing this
up: they might decide it's easier to get rid of the assistant and let you do
all the work. Tough call!

--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Check out RoboDemo for tutorials! It makes creating full-motion software
demonstrations and other onscreen support materials easy and intuitive.
Need RoboHelp? Save $100 on RoboHelp Office in May with our mail-in rebate.
Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Previous by Author: Single vs double quotes? (Take III)
Next by Author: STC backstabbing?
Previous by Thread: RE: Tech Writers - Salaried or Hourly?
Next by Thread: RE: Tech Writers - salaried or hourly?


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads