Half hour a day wasted going through security at work and not paid

[TheSlamma]

So are workers. I mean, who doesn't take 20 minutes on occasion for that 15 minute smoking break.

Sounds like you do for sure

 

[theeedude]

So are workers. I mean, who doesn't take 20 minutes on occasion for that 15 minute smoking break. And who doesn't get it cut short from time to time.

Give me a fucken break. Either work the job and roll with the punches or be a pansy and sue for $40 worth of your time a year. Grow a pair.

Why? If someone is wasting your time and not paying for it, you should sue. I bet Amazon will make sure it never takes 30 minutes again if they have to pay for it. Don't you want the private sector to take care of this problem?

 

[crashtech]

I find it a bit ironic that in this case I seem to be siding with leftists, not only as a right/libertarian but one who also has hourly employees. I'd never dream of treating anyone so poorly, although stealing is about the fastest way to get ejected from my shop. I just don't think you can elicit someone's best effort by treating them like shit.

 

[werepossum]

I find it a bit ironic that in this case I seem to be siding with leftists, not only as a right/libertarian but one who also has hourly employees. I'd never dream of treating anyone so poorly, although stealing is about the fastest way to get ejected from my shop. I just don't think you can elicit someone's best effort by treating them like shit.

Well said, sir. So many times I've seen employers shit on employees for something tiny like this, without understand that the employees are now standing around telling each other how pissed they are instead of doing their jobs.

 

[zanejohnson]

Corporatists are very cavalier with workers' time, but throw a huge fit when asked to pay for it.

yep, anyone use kronos for time management?


shit's so conniving and cheatery towards the employee it's almost sad..

7 minute window, that rounds up.....so if your early, it rounds up..

but if your late by a minute, it rounds up to the 7th minute, effectively screwing you for almost 1/10th of an hour.....and then clocking out, can be configured to work the opposite way lol..

automatically takes an hour for a break out after an allotted amount of time on the clock, regardless if you actually took your lunch..

turns 80 hour pay periods into 68 hours....seen it happen

 

[Fayd]

Costco doesn't actually care about its employees. It just likes to pretend it does.

that's why costco has one of the highest employee satisfaction ratings of any retail establishment?

actually care or pretend to care doesn't really matter. the fact is they tend to treat their employees better than elsewhere.

 

[DCal430]

that's why costco has one of the highest employee satisfaction ratings of any retail establishment?

actually care or pretend to care doesn't really matter. the fact is they tend to treat their employees better than elsewhere.

They rely on outsourcing to companies that treat their employees like crap. It doesn't matter how well they treat the people they employee directly, when outsource other jobs to companies that treat workers worst than Walmart, they are no better than Walmart.

Example: The food samplers are not employed directly by Costco, but are outsourced. These workers who all work in Costco, are treated like shit, worst walmart employees. They basically live on extreme poverty on welfare. hey are paid minimum wage and given zero benefits. They would be better off at basically any other job, even McDonalds treats its employees better. The fact that Costco DIRECT SUPPORTS this makes them shit.

SO NO COSTCO IS PART OF THE PROBLEM, NO BETTER THAN WALMART.

 

[ivwshane]

They rely on outsourcing to companies that treat their employees like crap. It doesn't matter how well they treat the people they employee directly, when outsource other jobs to companies that treat workers worst than Walmart, they are no better than Walmart.

Example: The food samplers are not employed directly by Costco, but are outsourced. These workers who all work in Costco, are treated like shit, worst walmart employees. They basically live on extreme poverty on welfare. hey are paid minimum wage and given zero benefits. They would be better off at basically any other job. Costco SUPPORTS THIS.

Lol! There are about 15 of those employees for every 200 costco employees and I've never seen one in a bad mood or complaining.

 

[DCal430]

Lol! There are about 15 of those employees for every 200 costco employees and I've never seen one in a bad move or complaining.

I have spoken to them, they are treated like crap. They work there because it was all they could find. They live off welfare mostly because the pay is so low, and with no benefits. The sad thing, is most of them can't even afford the membership to shop at Costco, they paid so little.

 

[crashtech]

I get some mixed feelings about this. I personally try to treat my workers as good as I can, but if someone says, "hey, come do this for me for super cheap," and people come flocking to do it, whose fault is it exactly?

 

[Joepublic2]

I'm sure all the Rich Republican Pro Corporate Thugs in here side with Amazon.

Literally nobody that doesn't have shit for brains is siding with Amazon in this thread because almost everybody has had a shitty, abusive employer in their past or present. How's that warped version of reality you're living in treating you?

They should be paid while they're in the building or otherwise barred from leaving IMO.

I get some mixed feelings about this. I personally try to treat my workers as good as I can, but if someone says, "hey, come do this for me for super cheap," and people come flocking to do it, whose fault is it exactly?

Yeah they should sit in a field and eat rocks I guess. Not everybody has a social support network they can mooch off of while holding out for a better deal.

Because wage/hour laws don't normally allow for paying for seconds? Unless you think that the granularity of an average paycheck is calculated down to the 0.01 of an hour?

Are you serious?

I wish you were one of my employees. I'd schedule/pay you for 8 hours and find stuff for you to do for another 55 minutes every night and you wouldn't even grumble about it, apparently. There's no reason you can't have a granularity down to .01 hours anyway; it's 2014 and we have these things with clocks accurate down to the nanosecond called com-pu-ters.

 

[crashtech]

Yeah they should sit in a field and eat rocks I guess. Not everybody has a social support network they can mooch off of while holding out for a better deal.

While I feel for anyone who finds themselves in such a situation, speaking again personally I don't have unlimited resources for which to care for others, and so the question naturally arises as to how much responsibility we should be compelled to take on for one another. I don't think it should be as clear cut as you seem to think it is, but neither am I a proponent of utter callousness.

 

[Sunburn74]

To me the case is very straight forward. Just imagine if it took 12 hours to get through in house security. Most people would clearly see the unreasonability of that time delay. Once you see that, then its just a matter of degrees. Nonetheless for some people 30 mins is 10% of their total time spent working and well worth going after.

There is no way for the worker to get through security prior to being on his own time and there is no other route around it; getting through security becomes integral to his job. Furthermore, the security checkpoint completely imposed by the company and not say a natural process like traffic or distance, natural processes which the client has some control over has he manages and natural processes that the company has essentially no control over. Either get rid of the security checkpoint delays or pay the workers for the time spent getting through them.

In fact, simply amazon's needing a supreme court on the issue and not just settling out of court or fixing a relatively simple problem is a black mark (amongst several already pre-existing) on their reputation as a company.

 

[werepossum]

I have spoken to them, they are treated like crap. They work there because it was all they could find. They live off welfare mostly because the pay is so low, and with no benefits. The sad thing, is most of them can't even afford the membership to shop at Costco, they paid so little.

These are people who literally stand and offer toothpicks or paper cups of food. Costco is a company that pays well and provides benefits, and if such a service were not available, these jobs simply wouldn't exist. They simply are not worth anything near what Costco employees cost.

Also, the core reason this is done through a service is because the food companies pay for them. It's a form of advertising and promotion.

 

[crashtech]

I try hard to see both sides of the story, but those who think any warm body is worth $15/hr even when they make no effort to gain marketable skills are just as irritating as corporate apologists.

 

[xBiffx]

Sounds like you do for sure

Sorry, don't smoke. :\

 

[xBiffx]

Why? If someone is wasting your time and not paying for it, you should sue. I bet Amazon will make sure it never takes 30 minutes again if they have to pay for it. Don't you want the private sector to take care of this problem?

My time is wasted every day. No one pays for it. Guess its time to sue. :\

I am sure that Amazon doesn't want to take 30 minutes of people's time just to stand in a security line because of one employee's actions. Oh that's right, Amazon is pure evil. Nevermind, move along.

 

[xBiffx]

wish you were one of my employees. I'd schedule/pay you for 8 hours and find stuff for you to do for another 55 minutes every night and you wouldn't even grumble about it, apparently. There's no reason you can't have a granularity down to .01 hours anyway; it's 2014 and we have these things with clocks accurate down to the nanosecond called com-pu-ters.

Computers track it, sure. But its not paid out that way.

http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs53.htm

Some employers track employee hours worked in 15 minute increments, and the FLSA allows an employer to round employee time to the nearest quarter hour. However, an employer may violate the FLSA minimum wage and overtime pay requirements if the employer always rounds down. Employee time from 1 to 7 minutes may be rounded down, and thus not counted as hours worked, but employee time from 8 to 14 minutes must be rounded up and counted as a quarter hour of work time. See Regulations 29 CFR 785.48(b).

 

[Scarpozzi]

What about the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing. This almost seems like a violation of their rights to begin with....but I totally understand it's necessary because, in many cases, the kinds of employees that take these high turnover jobs are motivated to get a leg up by any means. I think Amazon should pay them for the screening or simply beef up their exit procedure/alter shift change timing to make the process more seamless.

When I worked an hourly job that required me to take only a 30 minute lunch break, while any available food was a 10 minute drive away, I billed them for every minute of my time. I clocked in the moment I got there and the moment I left....

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by senseamp
Corporatists are very cavalier with workers' time, but throw a huge fit when asked to pay for it.

So are workers. I mean, who doesn't take 20 minutes on occasion for that 15 minute smoking break. And who doesn't get it cut short from time to time.

Give me a fucken break. Either work the job and roll with the punches or be a pansy and sue for $40 worth of your time a year. Grow a pair.

Not true.

The tide has turned in most of the U.S. to being non-smokers.

You must be a smoker and you are part of the scourge that causes health care premiums to be higher for the rest of us non-smokers.

The fact you use your filthy disgusting habit to take time off from working shows you and your kind should be fired.

 

[crashtech]

^ OT trolling your own thread?

 

[ElFenix]

I talked to my mom again about this. She's thinking this was from an incident at her facility. Apparently, someone either didn't or wouldn't empty out their pockets while going through security and it caused a huge delay (hundreds of people have to go through at the same time).

She did confirm that she does clock out before going through security but that it takes like 30 seconds to get through normally.

Sounds like another frivolous lawsuit to add to the pile.

frivolous lawsuits don't get to make arguments before the US supreme court.

 

[JEDI]

They rely on outsourcing to companies that treat their employees like crap. It doesn't matter how well they treat the people they employee directly, when outsource other jobs to companies that treat workers worst than Walmart, they are no better than Walmart.

Example: The food samplers are not employed directly by Costco, but are outsourced. These workers who all work in Costco, are treated like shit, worst walmart employees. They basically live on extreme poverty on welfare. hey are paid minimum wage and given zero benefits. They would be better off at basically any other job, even McDonalds treats its employees better. The fact that Costco DIRECT SUPPORTS this makes them shit.

SO NO COSTCO IS PART OF THE PROBLEM, NO BETTER THAN WALMART.

sounds like your bitter against cstco and it's a personal problem?

and those food sample people are paid at least $12/hr here in VA.
(there was a sign up a couple of years ago looking for hires.)

 

[PokerGuy]

Update: the SCOTUS ruled unanimously for the defendants (Amazon etc), overturning the appeals court ruling.

"Integrity Staffing did not employ its workers to undergo security screenings, but to retrieve products from warehouse shelves and package those products for shipment to Amazon customers," Thomas wrote.


As for the long waits employees complained about, Thomas said, "those arguments are properly presented to the employer at the bargaining table."

Makes complete sense. The employer isn't hiring people to undergo screenings, they are hiring them to get packages mailed etc. Thus, the screening process is not part of the actual job. If people don't want to stand in line for 30 minutes (unpaid) to undergo screening, they don't have to take that job, that's part of their evaluation of the job/compensation etc.

 

[z1ggy]

Replace "going through security" with "stuck in traffic on the way to work".... should employers have to pay for those stuck in traffic as well?

I can see both sides of this argument.

Edit, N/m Amazon wins.