Employees sue employers for charging Vista boot-up times

This morning, my Mac needed around four minutes to boot-up. No problem, I can wait that long. Had another zip from my coffee, scanned the frontpage of The Himalayan and chatted with the waiter. For a lot of people though, this morning ritual can have a serious impact on their daily lives.

Ok, these folks use Vista on a corporate pc, so it takes them approximately twenty minutes to boot-up their working devices. In the meantime, they have a smoke, catch up with colleagues, or “engage in other non-work activities”.

Those last words come from Richard Rosenblatt, a lawyer hired by US corporate giants like AT&T, United Health Group and Cigna. These stuck-up employers want to cut some costs by not paying their employees for this 20 minutes boot-up and log-off time.

Say that the average employee works 245 days a year. That means the plan of Rosenblatt will cost them around 82 hours (4900 minutes) in salary. No wonder the employees have hired lawyer Mark Thierman to ridicule and destroy this plan. US employees, stand up for your boot-up right!

[Via The Inquirer] [Photo credit: the great Thomas Hawk]