when that was happening to me i called the Workers Compensation and the manager can get in trouble for that and i don't believe they can fire u because then that would like go against one of the admendments, don't know which but i know its there

There has been recent publicity in Canada about a big bank who expected their employees to do just this. The employees brought a civil suit against the employer and won. It is against Labour Laws. OK if you have numbers of folk in a joint suit, but if you work in a small place where you are the only individual being expected to do this, a bit more risky. You have a right to refuse. Call the Department of Labour and get them to fax you a copy of the ruling which clarifies that you have this right.....and when you say 'no' to the boss, if there is an issue, you quietly give a copy of this document to your employer. "I'd be happy to work overtime for you, but you must pay me. That's the law."

I used to work for a major credit card bank, and during high volume call times, the managers would announce that no one could leave their desks, breaks were cancelled, and that if you were scheduled for lunch to eat at your desk between calls and if you didn't have your lunch with you to put money on your desk and a manager would run down to the cafeteria to buy it for you. I was 7 months pregnant and told them to kiss my fat ass because I had every right to take a break, go to the bathroom, and eat my lunch away from my desk. I told them if they were so worried about call volume that all the managers should start taking calls to help. Another pregnant worker got up and went to her car to call a lawyer. Within a couple weeks corporate headquarters officially announced that certain call center departments would be getting extra money in their checks to compensate for breaks and lunches that they worked through, and that under no circumstances would any employee be ever asked to work through a break again. Apparently they broke a federal law when the managers wouldn't let people leave, and the bank not only faced civil lawsuits, but federal sanctions and fines.