Re: Today (Feb 26) IBM announcements

"Robert" <no@xxxxxx> wrote:

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"

Those laws do not *forbid* such people from receiving overtime pay,
as your language above implies. The purpose of those laws is to require
overtime pay for those who *do not* meet those criteria, not to forbid it
for those who do. An employer may chose to pay overtime to anyone
who works for them.
--
Judson McClendon judmc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (remove zero)
Sun Valley Systems http://sunvaley.com
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."


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