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View Full Version : California law exempting game programmers from receiving overtime pay



Kornman00
April 9th, 2009, 01:17 PM
Thought you all may find this interesting. While this law went into effect last October, I don't remember any talk of it nor did any tech talk threads get returned when I searched for "california".

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2009/04/simpsons_crunchtime.jpg
(http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/06/california-law-may-exempt-game-programmers-from-receiving-overti/)


Do you work in California? Do you program games? Do you make over $75K a year? Well, it may be time to seek employment in another state, friend. As of today, California Assembly Bill 10 (http://info.sen.ca.gov/pub/07-08/bill/asm/ab_0001-0050/ab_10_bill_20080930_chaptered.html) has gone into effect and means the future of game development in California for some may be marred by brutal crunch times with no compensation for overtime hours.

Amending the existing overtime laws and clarifying exemptions barring certain employees from receiving overtime under various conditions, AB 10 seeks to lower the number of lawsuits taking place in the state under previous guidelines. Joystiq's Law of the Game (http://www.joystiq.com/tag/law-of-the-game/) author Mark Methenitis (http://www.joystiq.com/bloggers/mark-methenitis/) explained the downside of the amendment to us this afternoon, saying, "Practically speaking, that means if you're a dev with a salary of $75K, you can't claim overtime during crunch, which means the developer is more likely to use crunch cycles."

Game developers looking to leave the state may want to inquire with 2K Boston Irrational Boston (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/01/take-two-files-trademark-for-irrational-boston/comments/18031560/) -- we hear the company's hiring (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/20/2k-boston-is-hiring-hey-ken-we-have-excellent-compuper-skills/)!

[Update: Please pardon the confusion, dear readers. To clarify: California Assembly Bill 10, did, in fact, go into effect during October 2008. We have not -- as some emails have suggested -- become trapped in a time warp, perpetually repeating the day every store in town was inexplicably out of napkins and dill pickles.]

[Via superannuation (http://supererogatory.tumblr.com/post/93023640/item-number-4-is-now-clarified-to-exempt-computer)]
Aaaaaaand you can hear the sound of EA Executives creaming their pants. It's great to see who the government is actually representing here. So...you want to cut down on law suits, huh? How about....encouraging the companies to treat their employees fairly by imposing laws that will protect the worker and not the businesses that are either breaking the law or using loop holes to mis treat their employees to their benefit.

Snaf, I'm not relocating to Cali. Find some place in WA 8).

Jean-Luc
April 9th, 2009, 01:24 PM
I'm keep this nice and too the point.

This is BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

Yay for the business machine taking a 9-iron to the face of one of the largest parts of the gaming industry.

paladin
April 9th, 2009, 01:39 PM
Thank god im in WA

Mass
April 9th, 2009, 01:42 PM
uch

game devs don't have unions do they

we should get on that

paladin
April 9th, 2009, 02:03 PM
FUCK unions....

edit, this is like calling a california game program an agricultural worker. Their the only group, besides teenagers exempt from OT(In WA).

SnaFuBAR
April 9th, 2009, 03:00 PM
Snaf, I'm not relocating to Cali. Find some place in WA 8).
already considering it since CA doesn't give tax exemptions to digital artists and i think WA does :cool:

Sel
April 9th, 2009, 03:54 PM
the fuck

what the fuck is this supposed to accomplish

Limited
April 9th, 2009, 04:03 PM
There goes my dream of moving to California....

Seriously was this bill needed? Was the overtime really that much of an issue to need to implement a law?

Fucking bullshit, I just hope no where else captures on.

flibitijibibo
April 9th, 2009, 04:36 PM
They're just getting the important people to leave California so we can make the loss of California by nuclear attack less fatal.

To those who were hoping to move to California: It's a really shitty place to live, anyway. Remember the smug clouds from South Park? That's not fiction. Also, an apartment there costs more than a fucking mansion anywhere else. Try WA, most of the decent developers are there.

legionaire45
April 9th, 2009, 05:20 PM
I remember reading this and being quite annoyed.

Sign me up for Washington too :D. Microsoft's campus is quite nice.

paladin
April 9th, 2009, 05:25 PM
stay out of my stat guys.....

Bodzilla
April 9th, 2009, 09:10 PM
thats absolutely retarded.

i mean what the fuck, these guys work their ass's off to get it out on time and you wont even pay them for the time it takes them to do it?
i bet they wont bring in any more workers, they'll just keep flogging the shit outta the devs until they leave, or become the new whip master.

absolute fucking bullshit.

NuggetWarmer
April 9th, 2009, 11:18 PM
Texas is fun too.

Mr Buckshot
April 10th, 2009, 02:24 AM
Ridiculous. Any kind of job deserves extra pay for overtime hours.

=sw=warlord
April 10th, 2009, 09:27 AM
Jack thompson must be laughing his ass off right about....since october.
This doe's suck im suprised it even passed without opposition.