Re: Today (Feb 26) IBM announcements

On Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:51:24 +1300, "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

What was of particular interest to me (and not referenced in Bill's post) is
the recent salary and overtime shake up at IBM.

http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/BUSINESS/801240335

There are some VERY disgruntled employees who are being told to take a 15%
drop in salary at a time when the company is still making a profit. How many
will vote with their feet, and what effect this will have (if any) remains
to be seen.

According to US labor law, programmers and systems analysts (not all IT workers) earning
more then $27.63 per hour ($56K/yr) are NOT entitled to overtime pay. (first link) The
7,600 people who were reclassified and received a 15% cut as a result of Rosenburg v. IBM
nearly all made more than the cutoff (third link below). They were not programmers. IBM
claimed they were "professionals". The test for professional is:

Work Requiring Advanced Knowledge
?Work requiring advanced knowledge? means work which is predominantly intellectual in
character, and which includes work requiring the consistent exercise of discretion and
judgment. Professional work is therefore distinguished from work involving routine mental,
manual, mechanical or physical work. A professional employee generally uses the advanced
knowledge to analyze, interpret or make deductions from varying facts or circumstances.
Advanced knowledge cannot be attained at the high school level." (second link below)

Does production support qualify as professional? Apparently the court said no. The 7,600
reclassified were only 6% of IBM's work force.

http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17e_computer.htm
http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/whd/fairpay/fs17d_professional.htm
http://www.allianceibm.org/salarycomments.php search for "survey"

.

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