Hi all,

I work in the pharmaceutical industry and we have 2 near 20 hour days back to back. Our previous "shift" we came at 8am, and left at 6am with the expectation to be back at work 11am the following day. Mind you this doesn't happen every week but the company is VERY aware that this these type of hours are supposed to happen to finish the process.

The argument is that [we] knew what we were getting into when we decided we wanted to do this job so there's almost no reason to feel bad. It just feels so unethical and there's been next to no attempt to crosstrain people to create shifts, hire more personnel for this project, or what have you.

I just really need to know if this is legal or not. I was told, "you don't want to open that can of worms" but honestly, this can't go on and it makes me want to quit. To make matters worse, they tell us to take the following day off so we can "rest" but in reality it's likely to cut amount of billable hours. I know this is not uncommon in the workplace for management to do but id like to know how the initial problem of the post can be addressed.