Unethical of my employer?

Q: I work for a large national health insurance company. I have the privilege of working from home for them, processing claims. Yesterday there was a large company wide computer security issue where all us telecommuters were not able to log into our computers for up to 4 hours. I personally spent the whole time in front of my computer trying to log in and contacting our help desk to try and resolve the issue. Now they are saying that we are not going to be paid for that time and that we have to make it up or take the time out of our vacation time that we have built up. Does this seem fair? What do you suggest I do? I've already complained many times to upper management and they are saying that it's the department policy that we have to make up system down time, even though it's a corporation-wide policy that we would be paid for that system down time. I was told by the Help Desk to keep trying to log in every 20 minutes. So I was sitting in front of my computer the whole time as they told me. Also, our policy states that if we are on the phone with the help desk and/or are instructed to stand by until the issue is resolved, that we will be paid for that time. For some unknown reason, my boss has said that statement is open to interpretation, and they interpreted as meaning we WON'T be paid, and have to make up the time. I'm so ready to quit.

A: Making up the time is not really the question, being paid for the time you were trying to log in but could not due to system problems is the issue. This could result in overtime pay if you make up a lot of hours, of course. If you have a fixed schedule to work, I would approach it as simply as a pay for time worked issue, that is, you reported to work on time and were working according company guidelines for downtime, but were unable to accomplish anything due to computer problems. Was there any record of you logging onto the network or contacting the help desk? I would record the evidence, such as witnesses' names, phone calls, and a log of what actions you took. Then pursue your pay, first with the company and then with the labor board, based on the idea that you reported to work on schedule and were trying to work following the company procedures that describe what to do when there are computer system problems.

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