PDA

View Full Version : Question of legallity of bosses actions?


Bigwigbob
02-18-2006, 09:36 PM
I work at a small cafe in an even smaller town. Thursday nigt the boss asked me to wrap potatoes in aluminum foil to bake the next day. I got to doing other things and completly spaced out the potatoes. The next day when I came in the boss had docked me an hour for "not getting all my work done". Can she legally do this and if she cannot does anyone know where I should turn her in to?

Bowser
02-18-2006, 09:38 PM
You don't live in King City, do you?


And as for the other, I'm not sure, but just stay on the clock an hour later sometime during the week.

Skip Towne
02-18-2006, 09:42 PM
Do you have a contract? Are you a union member? If the answer to these questions are no then she can do pretty much what she wants. You are what is called an "at will" employee. In other words you are a POS with no rights.

Dunit35
02-18-2006, 09:42 PM
That's not cool. But check this out. My brother is getting ready to get out of a job that didn't pay overtime and had no benefits. Lets say he worked 50 hours one week. He would only get paid for 40 and they would take the extra 10 hours and store them away for a sick day or maybe a day he left early. That's so illegal. Anything past 40 is overtime of course but the boss is trying to cheat the system by doing this.

luv
02-18-2006, 10:07 PM
Do you have a contract? Are you a union member? If the answer to these questions are no then she can do pretty much what she wants. You are what is called an "at will" employee. In other words you are a POS with no rights.
I thought "at will" had to do with firing/quitting. An employer can terminate your employment without reason as long as they don't say something like it's because you're female, black, too old, or one of the other protected classes. On the other side of the coin, you have the right to quit for no reason without notice.

I wouldn't think it would be right to dock his pay for not doing the chore, though. Maybe right him up for lack of attention to job responsibilities or something. Does she own the cafe? Do you have the paperwork proving the hours you worked and the check stub showing the lack of pay for the hours you worked? Can you go above her head? If not, even though I don't think it's right, I think you're just screwed.

Bigwigbob
02-18-2006, 10:29 PM
She ownes the place. I told her it was illegal to do that and she gave me the hour back. I had no idea if it was or not. She has done it to others who have worked there and the bitch is like a 3 year old on a power trip

Iowanian
02-18-2006, 10:31 PM
Do the job as the boss tells you, accept the consequences when you don't...or get a new job that requires a hair net.

JBucc
02-18-2006, 10:31 PM
Is she hot?



If it's yes or no my advice is fukc the bitch

cdcox
02-18-2006, 10:33 PM
She ownes the place. I told her it was illegal to do that and she gave me the hour back. I had no idea if it was or not. She has done it to others who have worked there and the bitch is like a 3 year old on a power trip

Yes it is illegal. There is a government agency that monitors this stuff (labor board). Rep to you to standing up to her.

milkman
02-18-2006, 10:36 PM
Do the job as the boss tells you, accept the consequences when you don't...or get a new job that requires a hair net.

I believe he IS working a job that requires a hair net.

Skip Towne
02-18-2006, 10:38 PM
No, Luv, "at will" means you do what the employer asks "at their will". There are limits though. They have to abide by state and federal laws. And they can fire you for no reason "at their will".

luv
02-18-2006, 10:42 PM
No, Luv, "at will" means you do what the employer asks "at their will". There are limits though. They have to abide by state and federal laws. And they can fire you for no reason "at their will".
Ummm...that's kinda what I meant when I said they could fire you for no reason as long as they didn't mention it being because you're a woman, black, too old, etc. Those classes are federally protected.

Also, did you know that you can break an employer's attendance policy, get fired for it, and still collect unemployment? In most cases, they will give it to you as long as you properly notified your employer before being late or absent on every occurence.

listopencil
02-18-2006, 10:47 PM
Do you have a contract? Are you a union member? If the answer to these questions are no then she can do pretty much what she wants. You are what is called an "at will" employee. In other words you are a POS with no rights.


Bullshit. If you're an hourly employee you can't be docked pay for a disciplinary reason last time I checked.

listopencil
02-18-2006, 10:51 PM
I work at a small cafe in an even smaller town. Thursday nigt the boss asked me to wrap potatoes in aluminum foil to bake the next day. I got to doing other things and completly spaced out the potatoes. The next day when I came in the boss had docked me an hour for "not getting all my work done". Can she legally do this and if she cannot does anyone know where I should turn her in to?



Call the office of the Labor Commissioner of your state. It should be in your phonebook under state government listings. As far as I know, if you are an hourly employee you must be paid for time worked or your employer gets a fine and has to pay you back. This may be a People's Republic Of California thing, but if my boss told me that I'd tell him to kiss my fat hairy ass. To his face. In those words.

ChiefsFanatic
02-18-2006, 10:53 PM
Do you have a contract? Are you a union member? If the answer to these questions are no then she can do pretty much what she wants. You are what is called an "at will" employee. In other words you are a POS with no rights.

As Wal-Mart and Best Buy will attest, you must be paid for every minute, much less every hour, worked on the clock.

Phobia
02-18-2006, 10:53 PM
What is the punch line in this thread?

listopencil
02-18-2006, 10:54 PM
She ownes the place. I told her it was illegal to do that and she gave me the hour back. I had no idea if it was or not. She has done it to others who have worked there and the bitch is like a 3 year old on a power trip

Heh...I didn't see this post before I started replying. I've got the blood of several generations of working class people flowing through my veins and I'd sure as hell tell a boss like that to stick it where the sun don't shine. Glad to see the bitch backed off. She knew it was against the law.

cdcox
02-18-2006, 10:55 PM
When I was 16, I worked at McDonald's for six miserable months. They would routinely clock us out an hour after closing, whether we were finished cleaning up or not. I was too stupid at the time to know that they couldn't do that.

Boozer
02-18-2006, 10:56 PM
Yes, it is illegal. Contact your state department of labor. Better yet, tell your employer you're going to do that if they don't reinstate your hour. Then when you get fired for it, you have a lay-down wrongful discharge case. You might want to tell them that, too.

listopencil
02-18-2006, 11:02 PM
As Wal-Mart and Best Buy will attest, you must be paid for every minute, much less every hour, worked on the clock.


I've worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse in northern California for a long time now. I have had a boss try to get me to work off the clock once. They used to have a built in "window" on the clock because they paid in quarter-hour increments. If you got off the clock within seven minutes after you were supposed to, your time would be adjusted back to the nearest quarter hour. It was done that way because unauthorized overtime resulted in a disciplinary action and people would get sloppy and clock off a few minutes late. That way you could get away with it and not get in trouble. She suggested one shift that the group I was part of use that window every day to do our day end paperwork. I just got really still and asked her in a sarcastic tone,"You're not suggesting that I work off the clock every day are you? I'm sure you wouldn't want to suggest something like that to me." She hemmed and hawed and backed off fairly quickly.

Logical
02-18-2006, 11:06 PM
Do you have a contract? Are you a union member? If the answer to these questions are no then she can do pretty much what she wants. You are what is called an "at will" employee. In other words you are a POS with no rights.Actually that is not true, you cannot take away hours as punishment. However, she could theoretically fire this person since he is an at will worker. She would still have to pay him for all hours worked legally. State labor relations board would take care of such a thing.

ChiefsFanatic
02-18-2006, 11:07 PM
I've worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse in northern California for a long time now. I have had a boss try to get me to work off the clock once. They used to have a built in "window" on the clock because they paid in quarter-hour increments. If you got off the clock within seven minutes after you were supposed to, your time would be adjusted back to the nearest quarter hour. It was done that way because unauthorized overtime resulted in a disciplinary action and people would get sloppy and clock off a few minutes late. That way you could get away with it and not get in trouble. She suggested one shift that the group I was part of use that window every day to do our day end paperwork. I just got really still and asked her in a sarcastic tone,"You're not suggesting that I work off the clock every day are you? I'm sure you wouldn't want to suggest something like that to me." She hemmed and hawed and backed off fairly quickly.

I was a dept. supervisor at Best Buy. At night we had to clock out on time to avoid overtime. But, we were still required to attend the closing meeting.

To make a long story short, Best Buy eventually had to make a blanket payment to any employee that worked for Best Buy during like 1995-2000 [not completely sure]

One day I got a check in the mail for all the unpaid labor that everyone had done.

listopencil
02-18-2006, 11:15 PM
I was a dept. supervisor at Best Buy. At night we had to clock out on time to avoid overtime. But, we were still required to attend the closing meeting.

To make a long story short, Best Buy eventually had to make a blanket payment to any employee that worked for Best Buy during like 1995-2000 [not completely sure]

One day I got a check in the mail for all the unpaid labor that everyone had done.


We have opening meetings and general meetings that occur mid-shift. If we had them at the end we just wouldn't go. But yeah, this is the same reason Wal-Mart has all of these same types of lawsuits going against them right now. Not to say that this is the only reason for the suits, this is just the explanation for some of them.

KcMizzou
02-18-2006, 11:42 PM
Sort of off topic, but...

My company is union. (Teamsters) A fellow employee was fired during a shouting match with the manager. He fought it (for months). Eventually he was paid almost a full year in back pay, along with getting his job back. Then they paid him another 5 grand to go ahead and quit.

The worst part of it was... the guy was totally worthless.

Bob Dole
02-18-2006, 11:52 PM
If you're in MO and they routinely screw over employees, you can file a complaint with the Wage and Hour folks. Try laborstandards@dolir.mo.gov

Way back in 19mumblemumble, Bob Dole had a boss who refused to pay us for mandatory staff meetings. That policy came back and bit him on the ass after a call to Wage and Hour and the subsequent investigation.

Hog's Gone Fishin
02-19-2006, 10:33 AM
I work at a small cafe in an even smaller town. Thursday nigt the boss asked me to wrap potatoes in aluminum foil to bake the next day. I got to doing other things and completly spaced out the potatoes. The next day when I came in the boss had docked me an hour for "not getting all my work done". Can she legally do this and if she cannot does anyone know where I should turn her in to?

You, my friend ,will be replaced by one of our good friends from across the
southern border.

milkman
02-19-2006, 10:51 AM
I've worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse in northern California for a long time now. I have had a boss try to get me to work off the clock once. They used to have a built in "window" on the clock because they paid in quarter-hour increments. If you got off the clock within seven minutes after you were supposed to, your time would be adjusted back to the nearest quarter hour. It was done that way because unauthorized overtime resulted in a disciplinary action and people would get sloppy and clock off a few minutes late. That way you could get away with it and not get in trouble. She suggested one shift that the group I was part of use that window every day to do our day end paperwork. I just got really still and asked her in a sarcastic tone,"You're not suggesting that I work off the clock every day are you? I'm sure you wouldn't want to suggest something like that to me." She hemmed and hawed and backed off fairly quickly.

Donkey fan and WalMart employee!!

I believe you achieved the penultimate level of suckage! :)

4th and Long
02-19-2006, 11:03 AM
http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/3476/jetson7yl.jpg

Simplex3
02-19-2006, 11:21 AM
She ownes the place. I told her it was illegal to do that and she gave me the hour back. I had no idea if it was or not. She has done it to others who have worked there and the bitch is like a 3 year old on a power trip
She's probably never been in charge of s**t before this. I'm just guessing, but the money to open the place came from something other than her hard work, right? Husband's money? Inheritance?

Same thing with most homeowner's associations. You wind up with someone who had a bunch of free time winning, but they've never had any power before and don't know how to handle it.

58-4ever
02-19-2006, 11:27 AM
Get her back anyway you can. Visine in the coffee is always good. steal office supplies. Hide a fish in her office....I have many more if these don't make you feel better.

jspchief
02-19-2006, 12:12 PM
It's illegal for her to not pay you for that hour worked, no matter how worthless you were during that time. If she disputes it, you can contact the Wage & Hour Division of the Department of Labor.

Of course, the side effect is she is probably waiting for the next time you show up 10 seconds late so she can just fire your ass. Legitimately.

PatsFanDan
02-19-2006, 12:28 PM
I had somewhat of a similar experience when I was in college.

I worked at a restaurant with one cash register used by all employees from open until close. Suddenly the register started being short on a regular basis. We are talking by about $20 on average. So the owner starts docking everyone who worked that day for a portion of what was missing.

The problem I had with this was that I had never stolen money and in all my years in retail (worked at a pharmacy prior to this), had never had problems with giving incorrect change back. It was obvious to me someone was stealing and it was coming out of my pocket.

I'm not sure what legal recourse I had because I got so pissed at my boss that I decided I would just find other ways to get the money back. In hindsight though, I wish I had looked into it based on principles. The guy was a dickhead.

kepp
02-19-2006, 02:35 PM
I have a related question: I am a salaried employee - no overtime - and in a document of "company rules" it states that if we arrive late without notifying anyone then we can be docked 1/2 day's pay even if we didn't miss 1/2 day of work. Is this legal. I don't remember reading it in the contract I signed...