Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: AZRedhawk44 on October 15, 2013, 10:44:12 AM
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http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/oct/15/amazon-sued-over-20-minute-unpaid-daily-security-s/
What a *expletive deleted*it-hole.
Wanded, magnetometers? Entering and leaving, and during lunch breaks? And not paid while undergoing it?
I'm guessing it's to prevent product loss due to theft, but it's insulting as hell and reminiscent of the scenes in Deadwood where Hurst's outfit is doing rectal probes to Dutch mine workers to see if they're trying to steal gold.
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How is it taking 10-20 minutes to do a wand check? ??? Is that an accumulative for all security checks throughout the entire day maybe?
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How is it taking 10-20 minutes to do a wand check? ??? Is that an accumulative for all security checks throughout the entire day maybe?
Waiting in line ....?
A few years ago I interviewed for a software job inside the federal building in Billings.
They told me that once you get your employee id card that they just let you walk through =|
I do have to say that the federal deputy marshalls are much more pleasant than TSA.
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I kind of wish UPS did this instead of passing the cost of employee thefts on to its customers....
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My bet is that Amazon will lose the case. Pretty standard for employers have to pay employees for time the employers require the employees to be doing something even if it is waiting in a line.
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My bet is that Amazon will lose the case. Pretty standard for employers have to pay employees for time the employers require the employees to be doing something even if it is waiting in a line.
Yep. Implement a workplace policy and tell me to follow it? I should be doing it on the clock.
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Yep. Implement a workplace policy and tell me to follow it? I should be doing it on the clock.
This.
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“As a result of the compensation practice utilized by defendants, warehouse workers are not compensated for all time during which they were required to be on the premises of the Amazon Fulfillment Center.”
I concur with everyone else. If you require them to be somewhere and do something at work, it is on the clock and should be paid. AFAIK, that's basic law. If it's work, you must be paid.
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^^^ +1. I have read a bushel of case law on this very subject. Usually things like paid time to change into the company-required uniform, or to don personal protective equipment or the like.
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Hourly employees should be paid for all the time they're at work - and if the employer requires them to stand around and be screened, it should be on the clock.
FURTHER . . . if they're supposed to have a certain amount of time for lunch, the screening time should NOT be subtracted from their designated lunch time.
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At the beginning of every shift I go down to the Security Forces vault to draw my weapons and equipment, and turn them in at the end of the shift. My employer pays us an extra quarter hour each shift to cover the time it takes to do this. There was never any discussion of whether or not we deserved to be paid for this time.
On the other hand, as a reservist in the Air National Guard, I'm expected to complete mandatory Career Development Courses of about 80 hours each on my own time. I did mine at work when the base was closed, so I got paid anyway, but many reservists are not happy about spending so much unpaid time doing mandatory coursework.
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At the beginning of every shift I go down to the Security Forces vault to draw my weapons and equipment, and turn them in at the end of the shift. My employer pays us an extra quarter hour each shift to cover the time it takes to do this. There was never any discussion of whether or not we deserved to be paid for this time.
On the other hand, as a reservist in the Air National Guard, I'm expected to complete mandatory Career Development Courses of about 80 hours each on my own time. I did mine at work when the base was closed, so I got paid anyway, but many reservists are not happy about spending so much unpaid time doing mandatory coursework.
Employment and liability laws don't apply to US military personnel.
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I didn't mean to imply it wasn't legal. :P I'm just saying it isn't easy for some reservists to find time to do coursework on top of a full-time civilian job.
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^^^ +1. I have read a bushel of case law on this very subject. Usually things like paid time to change into the company-required uniform, or to don personal protective equipment or the like.
Really? Interesting. I'm expected to be in uniform by the start of my shift, and not change into normal clothes until after the end of my shift. Employer provided uniform, kept on site. Never been strictly enforced that I know of, but good information to have if it ever comes to that.
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Really? Interesting. I'm expected to be in uniform by the start of my shift, and not change into normal clothes until after the end of my shift. Employer provided uniform, kept on site. Never been strictly enforced that I know of, but good information to have if it ever comes to that.
Are you allowed to take/wear the uniform to/from work?
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My bet is that Amazon will lose the case. Pretty standard for employers have to pay employees for time the employers require the employees to be doing something even if it is waiting in a line.
yup
ask geico
damn phone
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Are you allowed to take/wear the uniform to/from work?
They pay a service to launder them, so I could take them but then I'd be on the hook to clean them. And taking the bus or a motorcycle most days, having to lug clothes that are dirty/greasy/soaked in chemicals/covered in sewage etc would be a pain.
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They pay a service to launder them, so I could take them but then I'd be on the hook to clean them. And taking the bus or a motorcycle most days, having to lug clothes that are dirty/greasy/soaked in chemicals/covered in sewage etc would be a pain.
Okay, they may argue that it's your choice to have to change onsite before/after work. When I worked at the gas station, I just wore the Conoco shirt to/from work and brought them in for laundry once a week.
When I worked at the Chevy dealer I wore my own clothes as I recall. But the mechanics usually showered and changed after work. They worked strictly on commission (flat rate) anyway so I guess that the time was no big deal.
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I don't know how they would approach that. The standard is to leave the uniform at work, anything else would be an unusual individual decision. /shrug Hasn't really come up either way.
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I don't know how they would approach that. The standard is to leave the uniform at work, anything else would be an unusual individual decision. /shrug Hasn't really come up either way.
I don't suppose that you'd want to wear your own clothes in that environment anyway.
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Amazon could say screw it and make all the warehouse employees salary exempt.
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I bet when Amazon first started the checks it was just half a minute or so, but slowly got more involved. Sounds like they need to move the Time clock to the other side of security.
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Huh. When I worked security at a Lowes distribution center, we wanded/bag checked every employee in/out at both ends of shift as well as lunch and break times. Intake was usually five minutes or less, provided nobody set off the metal detectors or theft alarms. Exit at the end of day commonly took 20 minutes or so, due to the rush of employees. That was about 400 people or so in a half hour or forty minute span. Lowes certainly did not pay the employees for that time, in fact, if you were late due to check in procedures, you got written up for lateness. Not sayin' it was right, sayin' that's how it was.
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Amazon could say screw it and make all the warehouse employees salary exempt.
No, they can't. There are strict rules about who can be made exempt. Factors such as being allowed discretion in executing your work, flexibility in setting your schedule, being allowed to take time off without being docked, whether or not you have any "management" responsibility ... all play into it.
I once worked at a place for about six months. The job was supposed to be salaried (exempt), not hourly, and I knew that going in. But I also had a signed letter of offer from the company stating that, in general, I was being hired to work 40 hours per week. The nature of the work was somewhat crunch--slack--crunch--slack, so I expected and could put up with a couple of late nights once in awhile. But -- I had to attend in-service classes to maintain a license/certification, and they started docking me for the time I spent attending mandatory classes. And, even though I (and everyone!) was supposedly "exempt," they paid me (and us) for overtime -- but at straight time, not time-and-a-half.
After another personnel/human resources stunt they pulled, I quit -- and since work was scarce at the time and they had recruited me from a solid job I otherwise would have still been in, I felt no qualms about applying for unemployment. They contested it, we went to a hearing, and the hearing officer ruled that their various departures from the terms of their letter and from the terms of their personnel manual constituted "constructive discharge" (in other words, they forced me to quit) and that I would receive compensation. Further, he sent me on to the wages and hours group, who determined that since I was being docked for time off I was not being treated as a salaried employee but as hourly, and therefore they owed me time-and-a-half for all the overtime I had worked at straight time.
Employers can't just say "You're exempt" to everyone on the staff.