Wal Mart, Kinkos, Taco Bell, Toy R Us, Altering Employee Time Cards.

[Broadslidin]

Along with Pep Boys, Rentway, Family Dollar, all shaving hours
from employee work week records.

"Some employees ask questions, but they are afraid
to confront management. They took it lying down."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/04/national/04WAGE.html

[1monster]

1. Been there, had that done during the last Bush administration.

We confronted the manager when our overtime hours were erased from the time sheet... His answer was to threaten our jobs. As we were in a serious recession then, we all kept our mouths shut. But since leaving that particular drug chain, I don't shop there anymore.

[AlienGirl]

18. What chain was that?

[Skittles]

27. yeah, tell us and we won't shop there either

solidarity with DUers

[Nlighten1]

2. Block Buster video did this to me for the entire time I worked for them.

I didn't know it at the time but it was against the law. They made it a habit of only reporting 40 hours for their assistant managers even though many weeks they were working 50-60 hours.

[Fitzovich]

5. Complaint might still be possible

You should check with Wage and Hour dept of the Department of Labor. You still might be able to lodge a complaint and get what rightfully is coming to you.

[napi21]

23. Sorry to say, but Asst. mgr might be exempt position

If so, that's a salary position and isn't eligible for OT.

[Pale Blue Dot]

3. Where have I heard this before:

Employees at Wal-Mart and other companies complain that they receive no paper time records, making it hard to challenge management when their paychecks are inexplicably low.

[OKNancy]

8. And McDonald's has a paper trail n/t

n/t

[KittyWampus]

14. Workers May Keep Their OWN Time Card.

And after a few deficient paychecks... they could then make a habit of signing their own work log in front of the manager.

At that point, if they get fired... go see a lawyer.

Now I wonder if these people understand the importance of organizing.

[indepat]

4. So many employers are bushwhacking their employees: surprise,

surprise!

[walkon]

6. So, This is why

the repugs were so desperate to change the wage and labor laws - to make time shaving essentially legal. And it explains why there was no visible group asking for this change in the law.

[Catch22Dem]

7. Whew

No Target on that list. From what I've learned on here, Target (and Dayton Hudson in general) is pretty good. They give back to the community, treat their employees well, and are patronized by fewer inbreds than the others. I make it a POINT to drive past Wal-Mart in order to get to Target. I feel better for doing it.

Note - I worked at Target when I was 17. Met my wife there too, so I guess old Target holds a special little place in my heart. I'd hate to find out they were shitbags.

[loftycity]

9. If you can go to Costco go. I grew next to Target #1 in Saint Paul

Costco treats their employees great and are big time Dem contributors.
Target is not the greatest or has gone down hill. Hopefully they will get onboard with the Costco mentality of pay your employees well and give them great benefits so they will stay working for you.

[Broadslidin]

10. I am acting on your suggestion, Thanks Lofty City!!

With an Internet assisted search, I have just found
a Costco Warehouse in Madison Heights, Michigan,
only six miles from my home.
The car will soon be showing off four new Michelin tires.

[Catch22Dem]

15. Not as fortunate here

No Costco anywhere near me.

[havocmom]

25. we drive 3 hours to Costco and 3 hours back home

Only one and a half hours each way to reach a WalMart.

Employees at Costco much happier and more helpful. Gee, I wonder why that is </sarcasm>

[eleny]

11. I like Target, too

Hope they aren't on the bad list. Costco is a great store! Clean, lots of choices and they have a pharmacy. Plus, the employees seem to be so cheerful. I like it even if it is the farthest store to drive to.

[Wapsie B]

12. The optimist in me

says that there will be a day of atonement for korporations like this. But the pragmatist in me says that with the Dems not challenging korporations these companies will continue it until doomsday. This needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. And people wonder why we may have anger towards korporate amerika.
This is a crime that needs to be punished to the extent that one of them needs to be shut down. Seize the assets of the korporation and the personal assets of the korporate officers. Make an example of them.

[KittyWampus]

13. Article NEVER Mentions Any District Managers

It quotes local managers ... most either refused to alter time cards or were very contrite (big time pressure)

It quotes the ownership... saying we have RULES about this sort of thing and PUNISH those who do it :eyes:

But not ONE quote or interview with a DISTRICT MANAGER... the ones putting the screws on the low level managers.

Why is that?

[Florida_Geek]

16. BBV But nobody would change

votes in a major election like these companies did all the time with electronic time cards.

Ya Right.

[lostnfound]

17. OMFG. Is there ANYTHING that hasn't been Enronized?!!?!?

How the hell do these people sleep at night?

[cryofan]

19. This a VERY widespread practice!

Take a look at this huge Slashdot thread on this subject:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/04/1655231

It is amazing to see so many people say this happened to them at so many different companies.

This practice really goes right to the heart of the weak American welfare state. If we had a strong welfare state like the social democracies of Europe, the workers would be able to collect longterm unemployment and welfare, and therefore would not be so afraid to speak out.

I am headed to law school this fall, and after reading that Slashdot thread, I am think I am going to take a close look at Labor Law as a possible practice area. It really strikes right at the heart of the corporate capitalist state.

Man, would I love to send nastygram letters to corporations, threatening to get go through their files, looking for records alteration, each incidence of which is a failure to pay taxes (payroll taxes!), and a possible heavy fine and prison sentence. If I can just find the clients, they would have to settle for a few thousand, even if they just shaved a few minutes each time.

[guitar man]

20. We MUST bring unions back to the forefront

These damn repugs have been hacking away at worker rights for their last 3 administrations.Enough is enough. It it time to organize and fight against companies who insist on raping the workers.
:grr:

[cryofan]

26. But what mechanism do we use to change minds?

Yes, we need to bring back unions, we need to get high voter participation rates, we need to get proportional representation, etc etc.

But in order to do these things, we first need to change the minds of many many Americans. We need to show them that these things (unions, voter participation, strong welfare, etc) work well in some other place.

I think that the evidence shows that they do work well in the social democracies of Europe.

But how do we convince Americans of that? How do we get the evidence in front of them? We need some medium through which we can do that.

The Air America and other liberal radio is a good start, though I have my doubts that in its present format it is anything other than a DLC/Centrist/Republicrat vehicle.

I see only one vehicle--the Internet. And already the increasing use of the Web to get news and entertainment is pushing non-elite mainstream media to present alternative viewpoints.

What we need is cheap, widely available broadband net access. Once we have that, people can download and view alternative video news easily.

So, I hope that the kerry admin will push whatever reforms are needed in order to make cheap broadband available. Cheap broadband mitigates the GOP money advantage.

[corporatewhore]

21. Taco bell is beyond pale for other reasons as well

check it out www.ciw-online.org

[evil_orange_cat]

22. Pizza Hut does it too

I know, I was told to.

[napi21]

24. If true, employees should contact W&H of labor dept, or atty!

I can imagine lots of attorneys who would love to get cases like this pro bono. I understand that one employee complaining would probably just be fired, but collectively, that won't happen!

I can tell you that when accusations like this are made against a company, the labor dept puts spotters outside the establishment to watch when employees come and go. They collect the information and then challenge the company to prove it wrong.

If this is happening to you, DON'T JUST TAKE IT!

It's illegal and has been for MANY YEARS.

[cryofan]

28. I wonder if they would have to take it on as pro bono?

It just seems to me that if a potential client comes in and says he has evidence of his employer not giving him all his hours, the lawyer should be able to send a nastygram to the employer and offer to settle. But why would you want to settle for just the amount that you have evidence of? Suppose the client says he has evidence that he lost one hour: why assume that the one hour is all that is lost? There may be more....

The thing is that I am pretty sure that shaving off of the clock like that is a very serious offense in that it essentially lets the boss avoid paying payroll taxes on the shaved hours. That is a 10K fine (I think) and then prison the 2nd time. All you would need is the paperwork to get into the computer system to see if the hours were changed. But once you have found any evidence of that at all, it exposes the employer to the avoidance of payroll taxes charges, the big money/prison time stuff.

But why would the employer let it get that far? The question is, can you send a nastygram asking to settle for 3K (as an arbitrary example) to the employer, when all you have is a client coming in saying he is one hour short (say $10). No lawyer can take a $4 contingency, so that client gets shooed out the door. But can you ask for $3K in a nastygram when you only have evidence of $10? The thing is that if you can use the $10 evidence as a lever to get access to the computerized time records, then the employer is in big trouble, even if the stolen time is relatively small, as soon as you can get access to the time records.

So the employer should settle in response to the nastygram....

Hmmm....

[napi21]

29. Not the point. Assuming you are not the only one....

the employer is most likely to be doing this same thing to most if not all their employees. You are not talking about a one to one pro bono case here. Look at the suits against Walmart right now. Under age employees locked inside the store after hours and off the clock, company using cleaning crews at wages under the minimum wage, and those are just 2 that I can think of.

Initially, the best bet is to contack your local wage and hour division of the labor department. They WILl put monitors out to watch when each employee comes and goes. I knoww they've done it! Company was forced to pay back wages based upon their findings and it's almost impossible for the company to counter their findings.

If you decide to go to an attorney, it should be not just you, but a group of employees. You will have to look around to find the right attorney, preferably one who has experience in this kind of case. Do a google on class action wage cases, or underpayment of wages, or something like that. There are lots of attorneys that will take cases like that, especially if you are talking about national companies. Remember, they do pro bono because they have the opportunity to get their % of the settlement, and.....the publicity!