Jonathan Pinedo UNST 404c Newsworthy Report 4/19/12 Off the Clock People from varying parts of the

job force are tired of working off the clock, which means that they are putting in extra hours of work, more than the norm (a 40 hour work week, for example) and are not getting paid for it. Some of the people affected by these kinds of restrictions are pharmaceutical reps, home health care aides, and waiters and waitresses in fancy restaurants. Some have come forth and are now fighting to have the right to get paid for the extra hours of work they have been putting in. Just this past Monday on April 16, 2012, the Supreme Court reviewed a case involving pharmaceutical representatives who claim theyre owed overtime pay even though their employer, GlaxoSmithKline, contends theyre sales people and not entitled to it(Tahmincioglu). This case was brought up to the Supreme Court because the employees of this pharmaceutical company, as well as many others in other companies and departments, are tired of working too many hours and being unjustly not paid for them. Grudem states in his book that God made us to be productive.and government decreasing productivity is bad(Grudem, CH.2, pg. 28,29). In the workers not getting justly paid, the companies and the government are limiting their productivity and potential because who is going to want to work for free? I sure wouldnt.

Statement of Controversy at issue The controversy issue presented in this case deals with the underpayment of pharmaceutical representatives. They claim that they are working too many hours, more than the

average workweek, and are only getting a salary pay. The reason this is making a huge impact is because they are getting salary, and not hourly, pay. According to the facts, The justices considered an appeal by two former sales representatives for a unit of Britain's GlaxoSmithKline Plc of a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California that they were outside sales personnel exempt from federal overtime pay requirements. So just because they are classified as outside sales, overtime does not apply to them (Thomas Reuters). That decision conflicted with an earlier ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that pharmaceutical sales representatives qualified for overtime under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Paul Clement, a former Bush administration solicitor general now in private practice, argued for the Glaxo unit and said the representatives were exempt from overtime requirements. Clement cited a brief filed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group that said classifying sales representatives as eligible for overtime could expose the industry to potential liability of billions of dollars. The Federal Labor Standards Act generally requires companies to pay workers overtime, but includes numerous exemptions for certain white-collar workers, including those classified as "outside salesmen." A ruling by the Supreme Court is due by the end of June.

Statement of Position- Pro The biggest pro argument would have to be that workers should get paid for the extra hours that they are working. This is the underlying concept of American culture. People go to school to learn, and they learn so that they can get an education, and then they put that education to use and make money. What could be worse than to spend all your hard earned money on school to only graduate and get cheated to what you are rightfully owed? The argument for this

proposition is that people should be justly paid for the services they provide. In Business for the Glory of God, Grudem quotes the bible verse that states the laborer deserves his wages- Luke 10:7(Grudem, Ch3, pg. 31). Jesus said that people deserve the wages that they work for. This is the only just payment for their services, as both Grudem and Jesus agree on. Another pro angle to this argument of getting paid overtime is being rightfully owed what is yours. Yes, it is true that salary workers cannot get paid overtime, because that is not the way their contracts were designed. But in certain cases, that is where the contracts that were established are wrong! As Tahmincioglu states, Theres a reason we have a 40-hour work week as a matter of labor market policy in the United States; its good public policy, she said, adding that if youre working beyond that and are entitled to compensation, employers have to pay (Tahmincioglu). The bottom line here is an ethical dilemma. If you know your employees are going to be working 50 and 60 hour weeks, would it be right to make their contracts salary based? Would that not be cheating them?

Statements of Position- Con Just like there is a pro-argument, there are people opposing paying certain employees for overtime. The biggest argument for not paying them overtimes is what is under review in the Supreme Court case. If you fall under the category that you should be paid a salary(as the term outside sales includes, which means they are not representatives, so they do no get an hourly pay) worker, you are not able to work overtime because that would be abusing the law and violating your contract. This is a very strong argument for the Con side. Its as simple as that you do not get paid hourly, therefore you do not deserve to be paid overtime, even though some

people might be working 10 or 20 hours extra each week compared to their coworkers, and it will not show up in your paycheck. Under the United States Department of Labor, which is responsible for establishing minimum wage and overtime pay, among many other things, it states that outsides sales employees, among others, are exempt from both minimum wage and overtime pay (United States Dept. of Labor). And in this instance, overtime pay is applicable. Since pharmaceutical reps fall under that category, they are not entitled to overtime pay, and therefore will not get paid additionally for the extra hours they are working.

My Position on this Issue I have a strong belief and a clear standing on this issue. To me, the bottom line is you earn what you sow; you deserve what you have done and are entitled to. This is the ethical problem presented. In Business as Mission, Baer says, Ethics is nothing more than knowing the difference between right and wrongtruth and falsehoodjustice and injusticeit is morality.(Baer, Ch.4, pg. 129).If someone is working 50% more hours than a typical hourly paid employee, he/she is deserving of some type of added compensation, whether it be some form of overtime pay, or a bigger starting salary pay. This is what the whole ethical dilemma is about. It is injustice to that employee. Companies do not want to pay employees who are working their butts off, even though some may be contributing extensively. Yes, I understand that on the other hand, those salary paid employees can also get the same amount of pay for working less hours than other individuals without losing pay. But something needs to be done about this ethical dilemma. It is not just that some employees, just because they are classified as

outside sales employees, like some of these pharmaceutical reps, are getting paid unjustly just because of their classification. This is not right and needs to be changed. There have been some ideas to fix this. Three years ago, the Obama administration threw its support behind the sales representatives in a court filing, saying an exemption to overtime rules contained within federal labor law doesn't apply to drug-industry representatives since they only promote -- and don't actually sell -- their company's products( Reuters). This would ensure that employees would not be classified as outside sales because they are technically not selling it, only advertising. Another proposal, entitled the Rebuild America Act, would raise the income level for those entitled to overtime no matter what their job classification. Right now, the cap is $455 a week, or about $24,000 a year and could be raised to about $54,000 a year. These are just some of the ideas being discussed that could possibly solve the issue we have of employees getting unfairly paid for their efforts in the workplace.

Bibliography

Baer, Michael R. Business as Mission: The Power of Business in the Kingdom of God. YWAM publishing. Seattle, 2006.

Grudem, Wayne. Business for the Glory of God. Crossway Books. Illinois, 2003.

Reuters, Thomas. Supreme Court hears Glaxo Overtime Case. April 16, 2012. http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2012/04__April/Supreme_Court_hears_Glaxo_overtime_pay_case/

Tahmincioglu, Eve. Off the Clock: Employess fighting for overtime pay. April 17, 2012. http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/18/11250818-off-the-clockemployees-fighting-for-overtime-pay?lite

United States Department of Labor. Wage and Hour Division. Qualifications for overtime pay. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/hrg.htm.