This Worker Decided To Take Action When They Were Stiffed On Overtime Pay

“This happened in the early 2000s when I joined a start-up. We agreed on a salary and no paid over-time and an evaluation in 3 months and then annually.

Standard stuff mostly. It was a very mediocre salary for the work, but I really liked work itself, which was extremely interesting and challenging. For me, even if the finances were so-so I felt I’d learn a lot of skills which would be useful in the future.

After 3 years and having 10 decent clients and a bunch of clients trialing and money rolling in, the talk turned to back-pay and paid over-time plus compensating for past over-time. At that point, around $50k in OT had been accrued, which is a lot. Legally it couldn’t be back-pay, so the talk was always of a discretionary bonus.

Now at this point, everyone is okay with this, myself included. And this was discussed in writing, via company emails too, so I felt secure and that no bad will was in play. I felt the company should be able to afford the payment, equally I’d happily settle for equity at a discount (which is legally possible there) if cash-flow was an issue.

The discussions about back-pay, possible equity and now started to drag on and I was getting irked by this. In the end, I was made an offer of equity which meant the company valuation was far beyond anything reasonable, in the hundreds of millions and I’d get a miniscule stake (less than 0.01% of a company with 9 employees and a projected annual turn-over of around 2 million). It was a F-U of sorts to stiff me out of money and I didn’t want to take that lying down. To say I was furious was an understatement.

Anyway, the day he made that offer I handed in my resignation. This sent the CTO into panic-mode because the CEO had refused an updated contract and I was still on a 1-month notice period plus I had a lot of untaken paid leave. Basically it meant I was walking out right then and there. So… off I went that very same day, to the shock and surprise of everyone, I guess.

The next day I sent an official, registered, letter requesting my overtime/back-pay and received a negative response, which I followed up with another, detailed, demand. This was also rejected because the bonus was discretionary and “there is no over-time”. However, I’d been seeking legal advice and I understood that they don’t have a leg to stand on if I am willing to pay for an attorney.

As the liability in such matters is firmly and 100% on the employer, I was willing.

You need to understand that going to a lawyer was very rare in those parts back then, so companies didn’t generally expect this outcome (things have since changed). When going through the applicable laws with the attorney, I noticed there is a limitation of 7 years.

So, while my attorney was laying out what to do in order to get me my money in a little as a few weeks, I just asked him what if we wait until it’s 6 years and 11 months after the transgression and then file, demanding interest? I wanted this because the law stated that back-pay is due at a 9% APR ABOVE the base-rate (3.25% at that time), accrued daily, for every day past the due date.

We’re looking at ~12-12.5% compound daily APR. The risk is that the company folds in that time, but I decided to take that risk. I sent one final letter stating that I expect “all the owed and accrued amounts to-date” to be paid immediately. Of course, nothing happened.

For the next few years life rolled on. The company did grow and become a known player in the area. When the time came, I found an attorney and started the case. We had copies of all the communications, copies of the registered letters and responses.

The back-pay demanded now, including interest, was $112k. What I didn’t know was that in addition to this that there are fixed penalties for each instruction to perform uncompensated over-time. The total demand was Something like $135k. To say that the CEO, who was still CEO, lost his sh*t would be an understatement.

I got a very verbally abusive phone call which I dutifully recorded (as it wasn’t completely unexpected) and was added to the filing. The CEO fought, or tried to, but when the judge heard the phone call, he took an immediate dim view. Reading through all the communication just put more nails in the defense’s coffin.

The judge just ruled and instructed the company to pay “immediately and without delay” and also ordered the company to pay all my legal costs. They also got a full audit from the department of labor.

The company paid up a week later.

To add insult to injury, the evening of the court’s decision, the CEO apparently got very d**nk and crashed his car into another vehicle while d**nk. He got a DUI conviction and lost his driving license for half a year and his insurance refused to pay out for the damages to his vehicle (brand new Mercedes S-class) as he was d**nk.

All in all, a glorious day.”