work related

a letter from my brother......any advice for him?

I work for a furniture company that I started in at $10.00 an hour working in the warehouse. After working a few months they moved me on the trucks. I drive and deliver. They changed the pay rate to commission. This I was not too thrilled with. They made it seem like we would make a lot of money and some times it can come to be 20+ an hour. More often it is not. I put in 12 to 16 hours a day work 60+ hours a week no overtime pay and if you where to add my checks they would average in at less than $10.00 an hour. (The amount I was originally making). They also have us doing work like fixing the roof and other non - original job descriptions. I don't really mind that as much but again no over time pay. The biggest problem I have is when the merchandise is flawed and a customer complains they take our commission away even if it is the fault of the warehouse, salesperson, or manufacturer. We drive all over the state of Wisconsin and to Illinois. They tell us if we don't like it there are plenty of people would love this job since the market is bad. However I know they can't keep anyone so I do not feel that threaten. For that reason the job market the way it is I stay. I am over worked and we get written up for being late when we worked 7 am -mid-night three days in a row and written up for calling in sick because they want a bigger effort to prove we are sick; like coming in so they can see us & having a doctors excuse (who has time for the doctor?) I sick with exhaustion. Please shed some light on this don't I have some rights at least to overtime pay or not having my commission docked?

i would ask to see the job description and book of rules they have for employees. then i'd also research some of the labor law. i think anything over 15 minutes u should get paid overtime. and if u work commission, i'd definitely make sure u are not being screwed. just research all u can about the labor laws. even online there should be some sites about it. g'luck.