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Seasonal Workers Have Rights, Too

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When America’s businesses go into holiday mode, it often feels like lightly controlled chaos for seasonal workers who step in to help expand a business’s capacity during the shopping rush. Often, seasonal employees receive their agreed-upon pay and not much else in terms of employment benefits. However, it is important to note that working as a seasonal worker does not mean working without rights.

Short-term and long-term employees both enjoy many of the same rights in the workplace, even if an employer may behave as if that is not the case. It is important to remember that many of the individuals who work in management positions and regularly deal with seasonal employees may not actually know what they are talking about, especially when it comes to your rights as an employee. What may seem like malicious or unfair treatment may actually be based in an employer’s profound misunderstanding of the laws that protect your rights.

Far more often than you might expect, employers mistreat holiday workers or deny them benefits that they deserve under the law, like sick leave or overtime pay. Whether you are a long-term or seasonal employee, you deserve to receive overtime pay any time that you work more than 40 hours with the same employer in the same week, and you deserve to be paid on time just like everyone else. Similarly, if you get sick as a seasonal worker, you may request to use sick time.

If you believe that your seasonal employer is not treating you fairly, don’t wait to speak with an attorney. You may have grounds for legal action to protect your rights, and can take part in turning the tide of fair treatment in America’s workplaces for all employees, not only yourself.

Source: ABC News 15, “What are your holiday employment rights?,” Dec. 04, 2017