They make all their employees regardless of function sign a contract that says we are I.T. technicians.
In Canada, you don't have to pay IT people overtime due to the nature of their responsibilities. Servers crash at 1 am? They have to come fix it. They don't get paid extra for that time. It's supposed to discourage IT people from purposefully dragging out jobs, but also results in them getting good salaries. Because they negotiate high expecting to be called upon a lot.
Well the company I work for makes the HR people, receptionists, accountants, labourers, desk workers, janitors, etc sign the IT professional contracts, and still pays then a below average hourly wage for their job.
And then at 5:30 they come around and tell lots us they need us to work until 9 tonight. And then at 8:30. They need us to work till 11:00. By the end of the week you might have worked 90 hours. But they only pay you for 40.
They also force everyone to work stat holidays and don't pay them overtime.
They also discourage taking breaks.
They violate a multitude of employment laws.
I work as an artist on feature films. And by feature I mean "the amazing spiderman" "avengers" "guardians of the galaxy" type stuff.
All of our software is pirated. The copies of windows aren't even genuine.
Further, and not so much illegal.
But they hire recent graduates and put them in shit positions way below their capabilities and promise them its just a probationary thing while we get to know you and lean what kind of employee you are.
The graduate believing this is his chance to show merit to a reputable company works their hand to the bone proving themselves. Often to the point of complete exhaustion, and its not uncommon for them to pass out at work due to exhaustion.
Without fail after the 6 month probation they all get laid off. No one ever transitions into the position they were promised. It's just the companies way of securing incredibly cheap effective labour.
I could probably keep typing all night. And I'm not talking about a small company. I'm talking about a company you're all familiar with. Producing movies you all go see in theatres.
I don't work for the company I'm talking about anymore. And their one of the worst for it. But the industry I work for is very much all like this.
There have even been investigations into secret meeting held by executives across all the companies agreeing they will all pull this shit so you can't even go leave for a better company, or point to examples.
I'm in a better place now.
But my last job saw me working 60 hour weeks. Being paid for 40 of those hours. And I would be pulled j to disciplinary meetings if I was ever 5 minutes late for my 9 am start time.
Oh right. Another thing they do is make some people sign contracts that state they will get paid "x" per deliverable instead of an hourly rate or salary.
When you look at the contract and evaluate how long it might take you to accomplish a string of deliverables it seems fair.
Unfortunately they consistently change the request for the deliverable mid project, or endlessly ask for revisions.
I've had friends work 90+ hour weeks doing amazingly technical and specialized work. Good work, exactly as requested work. And in lay day occasionally they don't get a check. Because their deliverable hasn't been approved yet. No fault of the workers. But the bosses changed their mind.
It's insanity.