employment law, overtime

[Sam Beard]

All,

   Related to this discussion is a news story I heard on NPR last night
on the way home. Apparently, an emerging trend among some businesses is
"hiring" an employee as a "permalancer". This means the employee is
brought on full-time to the company, but without many (or all) of the
benefits of a regular full-time employee and some of the disadvantages
of a freelancer. They interviewed someone that was hired on as a
"permalancer" copywriter at an ad agency, but was given lower benefits
and pay, along with the decreased level of job security (such as it is
anyway) of a regular full-time employee. The report cited among the
benefits to the companies as lower health insurance and worker's
compensation costs, as well as no responsibilities for unemployment
payments if they have to let the employee go for some reason. All of
this sounds like, to me, another way that businesses are only paying
attention to the bottom line and not to how the people that help them
achieve that bottom line are being treated to get there. 
   Just thought I'd throw that out there for discussion.

Have a great day, one and all!

Samuel I. Beard, Jr.
Technical Writer
OI Analytical
979 690-1711 Ext. 222
sbeard at oico.com