Just so you understand how the American job market works... In January 2006, three IBM workers filed a class action suit claiming Big Blue had illegally deprived thousands of its workers of overtime pay by classifying them as exempt under labor law. IBM settled the suit by paying $65 million to 32,000 workers.
But the resolution must have been eating at IBM since, because it's now teaching 7,600 of its employees the meaning of getting what you deserve. Forced by law to finally pay the overtime, IBM has decided to balance things out by cutting their base pay by 15 percent. This means workers will now have to work overtime. But IBM naturally tries to keep overtime to a minimum, so, according to company documents, about a third of these employees will end up taking a pay cut, because they made the company abide by the law.
Did I mention that IBM just reported record earnings and raised its outlook for the year? One veteran employee said, "Anybody who works for IBM knows that when they look to cut costs, they're really going to cut costs. I was so angry I could hardly speak, and it takes a lot to make me angry." IBM's take on the story? "Our workers understand this is something we must do to remain competitive within our industry." Yeah, right. What a load of bollocks!!!
George Parker
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