My husband is an artist who works for this certain company which has unusual contracts with their employees. By unusual, I mean the following:
1. They claim that their artists are considered "self-employed," which is why the company does not provide benefits. But the contract states that the artists are required to report from Monday to Friday, from 9am-6pm. Tardiness and undertime results in deduction of their basic pay.
2. The contracts do not have indicated timelines (it should include the dates when the project will start and when it will end, right?)
3. The employees do not receive copies of their notarized contracts.
And the contracts say nothing about overtime, so they usually work from 10-12 hours everyday, even Saturdays, Sundays and holidays sometimes, without pay.
Could we be clarified about what the law says about the above issues?
We're considering to go to DOLE, but we've been informed that someone had tried to do the same thing before but it was in vain.
We would also appreciate any recommendation from you on the next steps to take.
Thanks.
P.S.
The company seems allergic when employees involve lawyers... The last time employees brought lawyers, they were all kicked out...