by Luningning Sugbu

Created on: February 11, 2010

In this increasingly materialistic and capitalist world, exploitation is the most common strategy adapted by employers to ensure the rapid growth of profits in particular and the insurance of company survival in general. This is even more evident in small and fledgling companies with only one owner who has a tremendously lavish lifestyle. I should know. I worked in one for eight, long, miserable years. 

Being  Paid Salaries below the Prevailing Wage

My close friend from college introduced me to this female doctor who owned a clinic after I got laid off from the hospital. According to her, the doctor was trying to find  a replacement for the clinical laboratory technologist who was not managing her laboratory properly and not bringing in the huge revenues she was expecting. During our interview, the only thing we discussed was the salary where she would pay me six to eight dollars less than the prevailing wage. Even if I tried to bargain three more dollars, she wouldn't hear of it and because I was desperate at the time, I didn't have a choice. A couple of years later, I heard that one of the reasons she was dying to fire the other lady was because she was paying her the prevailing wage which she thought was a lot of money for a technologist's salary.

As if that weren't enough, I never got a raise for five years and when she did give me one, it was only a dollar an hour which was not keeping up with inflation.

Making it Difficult to Enjoy Full Benefits

My vacation days were almost non existent. Because I was the only full time technologist in the laboratory and the clinic is supposed to be open from Monday to Saturday, I was forced to work six days a week and was discouraged to take any vacation longer than two days. The only thing I did to make my days off a bit longer was taking off beginning Friday so I'll have three days worth of vacation till Sunday. The rest of my co-workers enjoyed  one week off at least.

She almost didn't give me health benefits and blamed the insurance company for the mishaps in my application. She tried to drag my coverage by not assigning a particular person to follow up on it in the hope that I will be the one to raise the white flag because of all the trouble I have to go through. Meanwhile, she had saved a lot of money on premiums and enjoyed a windfall of revenues while I was turning her laboratory around and valiantly protecting it from being closed by the Department of Health inspector for deficiencies before

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