Re: "Are technical writers the unsung heroes of document generation?"

[Gene Kim-Eng <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

The sad thing for those writers who were perfectly happy being exempt 
and doing a bit of casual OT when needed without extra pay the same as 
the developers they work with is that that provision in the code wasn't 
even necessary for that case. Sun was already violating the CLC by 
requiring employees they classified as exempt to work mandatory OT.

Exempt status is a lot like "independent contractor."  If you start 
treating people you employ in that classification as if they were hourly 
employees, making them clock in and out or requiring them to work OT 
rather than just allowing them the discretion to work it when they 
decide they need to, in the eyes of the CLC you have converted them to 
non-exempt employee status and are required to pay them as such.

I can't find any documentation to support, but my own personal theory is 
that someone in the NWU orchestrated this suit being filed based on that 
provision because the org wanted to be able to crow about the "great 
victory" it had won for writers in CA by pushing it through.

Gene Kim-Eng



On 6/23/2015 1:17 PM, Robert Lauriston wrote: