IBM recently reported record earnings, but they're cutting the base pay of their workers.
IBM riles employees with base pay cuts BOSTON - Even as IBM Corp. reports record profits, thousands of its U.S. employees are staring at pay cuts.
It's the result of IBM's response to a lawsuit in which the company was accused of illegally withholding overtime pay from some technical employees. IBM settled the case for $65 million in 2006 and has now decided that it needs to reclassify 7,600 technical-support workers as eligible for overtime.
But their underlying salary — the base pay they earn for their first 40 hours of work each week — will be cut 15 percent to compensate.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Corporate America is absolutely consumed by greed. They see employees as something to be tolerated and despised, and not as an important asset that enables them to make those record profits.
However, while IBM cuts employee salaries to get around those pesky overtime laws, it's CEO isn't hurting any.
http://www.aflcio.org/...
I have no doubt our handy legislators will ignore all those lobbyists and run out to write laws to protect workers from these kinds of dirty tricks. Yeah, right.
No doubt IBM will get some big government hand out because of the economic downturn (and in fact only pays 2% of income in taxes, which I recall from a corporate tax report released by a Democrat in Congress some time back).
I'm sick of this stuff.