Unemployment - Hawaii

by Taylor
(Hawaii)

I'm a mechanic that gets paid by the hour and over a year ago, due to economic distress, the company I work for made the employees sign waivers agreeing to not be paid for overtime. However, the work load and amount of responsibilities I have always amount to over the 40 hour work week so overtime is necessary to get the jobs done. Just a few days ago, the manager let me know that my base hourly pay will need to be reduced. So not only am I working overtime for free but the company would like me to work the same amount of hours and have the same responsibilities for less wages. At this point, the company is not giving me any other choices, it's either work for them and get paid less to do the same amount of work or not, and I do not want to work for less wages. Questions I have are: If I quit, will I be eligible for unemployment? Or if I refuse and they fire me because of it, will I be eligible for unemployment? Or if I talk to the manager and he doesn't take any action to fire or lay me off, what actions should I take next?





Hi,

I think we're going to have to step back just a bit .. because I was not aware that the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) allowed an employer to just have non-exempt employees sign a waiver which would in essence circumvent overtime laws.

Personally, that's where I'd begin.

Here's some links.

The poster all employers should have posted.

Link to the overtime law.

Complaint form


All this Taylor, because you're talking about quitting and I really want you to first make the efforts needed to preserve the job.

What I cannot tell you is how much of a reduction in pay might be good cause for quitting.

If it is not specified in statute .. you will have to call the unemployment appeal section and ask them where you can access Hawaii unemployment precedent decisions.