Am I getting Screwed?

[bosshog]

Here's the situation: At my place of employment we are paid on what they call "daily rate", which basically means every hour over 40 is halved what our hourly rate would be-this is a unique device invented to avoid commission. Basically, it is like a salary setup and no one punches the clock, like an hourly job, but you turn a time sheet in every week and your pay is stable really no matter whether you work 40 or 50 hours. On your time sheet, you are supposed to omit hours for lunch weekly, which most people eat on the run and don't take 30 minutes, or they don't eat at all. Today my boss calls and says they are going to take 2.5 hours off the time sheet, that i signed and was out of my possession at the time. This is for our lunch periods. The hours i actually put on the sheet were my hours worked less my lunch, so i got docked 2.5 hours, which isn't such a big deal pay wise. My problem is that no one asked me before, I signed the sheet and faxed it the night before, and they doctored it before it went to payroll. Not to mention, two managers have to sign off on it before payroll too and this wasn't isolated since they did it to everyone in the dept. Did I get screwed and do I have any recourse?

[Desiderata]

You're totally getting screwed! I'd throw a damn fit if they think they could take away hours that I actually did work... next time, ADD your lunches to your time worked if this is the crap they're gonna pull..

if order to recoup your losses, slack off a minimum of 2.5 hours next week during working hours

[bosshog]

Well the half pay after 40 is legal because of the daily rate pay. This all goes back to the fact that two years earlier they had everyone on commission and wanted to control payroll. So technically it is like a salaried job and the excuse that we "have" to take lunch doesn't fly with me considering they never had issue with it before and your not punching a clock. What burns me up is that I turn in my time, with the lunches taken out and they still alter the sheet with my signature on it without informing me till afterwards. My boss told me to add 2.5 hours next week, but I still think the whole issue is unethical and a lawsuit waiting to happen. I just wondered if anyone knew for sure if this was legal or illegal because I know I cannot ask HR at my office since he is nothing more than a snitch for management.

[winneythepooh7]

They are really strict about this in my agency. We submit a payroll sheet bi-weekly and are only paid for 35 hours. Period. Whether or not we work through lunch, we only are to put down 7 hours otherwise they change it. We are able to take comp time in a sense, and because our program is not fully-staffed right now, we were recently approved to work a full 40 hours per week and be paid the extra 5 hours now. But they are really scrutinizing the team members to make sure they are actually working the extra 5 hours per week and not just claiming it. It has to do with all the NYS labor laws and stuff. Also every employee is considered a "salaried" employee in my agency as far as I know.