Workers say Vista lets bosses screw them on pay
If you’ve spent minutes on end waiting for Vista to start up or shutdown, you might think nothing could be more painful. But for some employees, the real pain comes when they look through their paychecks.
At least three major corporations are facing lawsuits from employees who say they are not being paid for the time it takes to start and close their computers. The problem is that software used to track working time doesn’t start measuring until the user actually logs in. Lawyers for the workers say this is cheating them of between 15 and 30 minutes of pay each day.
The news of the lawsuits broke in the National Law Journal, whose report did not specifically mention Vista. However, the Register has spoken with the plaintiffs’ lawyer Mark Thierman and says the workers were using Vista. Thierman says the combined damages could run into the millions.
A defense lawyer in one of the cases says employees shouldn’t be paid for booting time as people are usually doing no work during this time, instead making coffee or talking to colleagues.
It’s worth noting this legal case is about employer behavior rather than Vista itself. And while Vista can be certainly slow to start up in some cases, 15 to 30 minutes sounds either an exaggeration or a sign that there are serious problems with the configuration of the office networks. One theory is that the slowdown may be worsened by companies installing unnecessary levels of security programs and monitoring software.
Whether people paid by the hour are entitled to payment for time they are required to be in the office, but are unable to work for technology reasons, is a legal point which only the courts can settle. But if corporations do start having to write compensation checks, you can bet management will be pressuring system administrators to cut down boot up times – even if that means switching operating system.
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November 20th, 2008
If you have to reboot a couple of times a day, then I think 15-30 minutes a day in startup/shutdown time with the computer is entirely plausible. My Vista installation often hangs on shutdown, too, so you have to do a cold shutdown and reboot, which takes a while.
Also starting up from hibernation can take EONS in Vista.
So, yeah, 15 minutes certainly and even 30 minutes is very plausible.
November 21st, 2008
they should just leave the computers booted each night, then they’d be paid for 24 hours.. some contractors have a lot to learn
November 21st, 2008
Ranks right up there at the top of “most ridiculous lawsuits ever”. I have no doubt that such a lawsuit could win in Europe/UK though, what with their already ridiculously liberal labor laws and government handouts society. Oh, Cali and Mass too (might as well BE Europe).
November 21st, 2008
No point asking which side of the debate you’re on, DavidB…
Yet, despite all the “liberal labour laws and government handouts society” that you seem to deplore, these countries appear to be doing substantially better in terms of OECD performance and quality of life than the US.
Try getting your head around the idea that employees are the most valuable assets any organisation/company has. If you can embrace that concept, then you might begin to appreciate that improvements in working conditions, safety, pay, work/life balance, and family-friendly flexible rosters may actually be repaid with higher productivity, loyalty, advocacy, and people being prepared to “do that bit extra for the firm”.
I work for such an organisation in Australia, where the employees are the intellectual property that generates all the productivity. We enjoy a high morale because our employer knows that it has an investment to protect. Each one of us costs many thousands of dollars in education and training resources to develop and maintain, so it is untenable to have disgruntled staff walking out the door without a return on that investment.
When I compare my employment to that of friends and acquaintances from both the US and Canada, I don’t see the same ethos from their employers. Indeed, my overall impression is one of poor pay, minimal annual leave, poor sick leave provisions, little regard to worker safety, no regard what-so-ever for family needs, and a nasty dog-eat-dog culture entrenched at line manager level. Everything seems to be that yuou owe the company your life, and how dare you take time off because you are ill, orr because you have a major family issue that requires your attention during business hours.
What makes the whole situation totally obnoxious is when the executive management demand this of their base level employees, while treating themselves to obscenely extravagant luxuries, bonuses, share options, and inflated salaries, even when the company’s bottom line is going down the toilet…