Help Wanted: Added duties, same old pay?

DEAR CARRIE: I work for a heating company that has about 30 full-time technicians who install and service heating systems. Recently, one of the bosses became interested in adding air-conditioning systems to the mix. He sent a handful of us who already have air-conditioning experience to a one-day seminar on a new system.

Now, without any discussion between management and the employees, we are installing and servicing central air-conditioning systems with no extra pay. We are not a union shop, but our wages are set as such, and they are adjusted at our annual company meeting.

We techs feel the company is stealing from us, without proper compensation for our knowledge and experience in the air-conditioning field. If the company didn't have us technicians with extensive schooling and training in this field, it would not be able to venture into this area, not to mention the hours we put in during the heating season, working nights, weekends, holidays.

Our families don't see us until spring. Now with air conditioning, we face a whole new can of worms. With only six or seven techs with air-conditioning experience, we'll be expected to cover off-hours service calls.

From my 27 years in the heating and air-conditioning field, I know that while people will wait for heat or hot water, they absolutely want their AC working now. Asking them to wait until Monday will not fly.

Since we were hired for our heating experience, do we have any recourse in refusing to perform air-conditioning work without a substantial increase in pay, since a tech performing both heat and AC services is making the same pay as the tech performing heat-only services? -- Steaming Over AC

DEAR STEAMING: Since you aren't unionized or covered by an employment agreement, you may be out of luck. Without a contract you are considered an "employee at will," and that gives your employer a lot of leeway in decisions concerning your pay.

"It appears the technician is an employee at will inasmuch as he states 'We are not a union shop,' and there is no mention of the existence of an individual employment agreement with this company," said employment attorney Carmelo Grimaldi, a partner at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone in Mineola. "Accordingly, assuming the company is complying with federal and state labor laws . . . the employee is free to accept the rates of pay offered or seek employment elsewhere, which pays better wages."

In other words, the company can legally refuse to pay you higher wages for the expanded work. And if you refuse to do the work, the company can legally fire you.

"Likewise, if the employee refuses to do air-conditioning without a substantial increase in pay, the employee should expect to face disciplinary action up to and including discharge for such insubordination, even if he/she is underpaid in comparison to others who work in the same industry," Grimaldi said.

Your company has to pay you for all the hours your work if you are nonexempt, or an hourly employee. And you have to get overtime pay when you work more than 40 hours a week.

And if you work on public-works projects covered by prevailing-wage provisions in state and federal law, the company has to pay you accordingly.

The worker would be "entitled to the prevailing-wage rate for such work regardless of the employee's regular rate of pay," Grimaldi said.

I think your example shows how a lack of communication at a company sometimes makes matters worse. You said managers never discussed the new duties with you and your colleagues. Sometimes just hearing employees out will motivate them to accept changes at work.

Click here for futher information on  the employment-at-will doctrine  at labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/ faq.shtm and here at labor.ny.gov/ formsdocs/wp/P10.pdf