If Amazon had to pay for workers to stand in line at a security checkpoint, Amazon wouldn’t pay for workers to stand in line at a security checkpoint.
I believe the ultimate goal is to end that half-an-hour wait at the end of the shift by getting Amazon to hire more security to process everyone faster.
Can we talk a minute to talk about that other perennially scuzzy bit of wage theftishness- the 30 minute unpaid lunch break? If you’ve just got thirty minutes, you’re probably walking, you’re probably in uniform, and showing up at a 7-11 across the street in your team polo isn’t a circumstance you’d find yourself in if it wasn’t working hours, which I think ought to be the guiding light for if you get paid.
That may or may not have been the goal when the lawsuit was filed, but if the court finds in favor of the plaintiffs, then it will probably be the result.
Time spent in line should be calculated into work time or paid as overtime. Screening time is not reliant on employee, it is forced and completely dependent on procedures enforced by employer. This is not the same as getting to work from your car/home to office door. Unless employees have agreed, in their contracts, to spend indefinite non-paid time in security screening line, then this should be treated as overtime.
Clients my help employees of Amazon, by expressing their disappointment with the way employees are treated - this is what business is afraid of. But will they do so?
When I was a firefighter/paramedic they got it so we were unpaid during our 24 hr shifts if we had no calls during the night 8hrs, I was just leaving when that BS came in. Eff you Teamsters Union, thanks for the great protection! Should have been an IAFF shop.
I have heard that pilots and stewards are unpaid until wheels leave the ground for some US airlines, I only bill by the Hobbs meter (engine hours) but I am independent and I bid jobs taking that into account. If you are not one of uncle Sams free fighting flight hours kids most little commuter pilots take minimum wage just to build hours and are happy to get them, I have heard some even charge pilots to fly the aircraft to fill log books.
Yeah, no, that is bullshit. If it was like a 5 min wait, I think that would be reasonable. 30 min is ridiculous. Hire more checkers, do away with them, or pay people for their wait. None of those other things listed sounded like they would take anywhere near 30 min.
Its not just Amazon. I worked at FedEx, who do exactly the same thing (punch out inside plant near line, walk to security and get scanned / frisked before you can leave gated plant to get to employee parking). Might have been a 10 minute line MAX at the hub where I worked (biggest in the country) at peak times, but we didn’t have everybody leaving all in one mass (which was its own issue, as you might only get 3 hours work in a shift). Was annoying, but as long as it stayed under 5 minutes, tolerable. 30 minutes is INSANE.
A little piece of music I wrote/recorded a while back. If someone does better music, feel free to rerecord it,
FWIW, in Mexico, it would be paid, no questions asked, heavy fines if you don’t. (sure at a largely lower rate, but its always surprised me how very little protection US workers seem to get)
This is really nothing new. About 25 years ago, when I worked as a janitor for a company that provided contract cleaning services to Target (among other places), the closing manager logged everything we came into the store wearing or bringing for lunch, not including underwear but including socks. The opening manager then had to check what we had on and with us the next morning, and often they took their sweet fucking time getting around to it.
They won’t keep it in mind, because they don’t care one way or the other. Working in an Amazon warehouse has been well-documented as being a pretty horrible job, and given that it’s a job usually held by people who aren’t the most empowered members of the workforce, they’ll continue to abuse their employees right up to, and probably beyond, what they’re legally allowed to do.
From the DOL website:
Waiting Time: Whether waiting time is hours worked under the Act depends upon the particular circumstances. Generally, the facts may show that the employee was engaged to wait (which is work time) or the facts may show that the employee was waiting to be engaged (which is not work time). For example, a secretary who reads a book while waiting for dictation or a fireman who plays checkers while waiting for an alarm is working during such periods of inactivity. These employees have been “engaged to wait.”
Sounds like they have been told by their employer to wait until they can do part of their job (checking out), thus “engaged to wait”. However, we will see how the legal maneuverings turn out.
Well, we’ve heard from John Galt, anyone else…? I’d love to know just how much latitude you think somebody working in a warehouse has to make career decisions, and exactly just how much blame you assign them for their life “decisions” that got them in that mess (like not being born into a family with a college fund).
This is 2014. If you’re seriously going to give us the “you could have gotten a different job” spiel, why don’t you look outside the window into the real world for five minutes instead?
Some time ago I tended to a contractor office in such a building, different megacorp. They had a metal detector for everyone who was egressing. When we were carrying out a dead computer, we had to go through the frame, put out things from pockets, and nobody questioned the computer we were carrying nor wanted to look inside the case if it is not full of “stuff”. Totally script-based security.
Another time the guard wanted to look to the car’s trunk. I still regret that I did not fake a “where’s the corpse?!?” freakout.
Fair enough. It’s definitely outside of my knowledge from a legal perspective but I would agree that it wouldn’t be all too surprising.
Assume much? I don’t know what it’s like to have a college fund. I do consider myself lucky to have been born into a family of intelligent people who valued creative learning, ensuring that I wouldn’t have to take a shit job. As for shit jobs, there are shit jobs and there are shit jobs. I don’t get paid for the eight hours of driving I do to get to the telescope when I have to repair it in the freezing cold on top of the mountain.
I’m pretty sure this is what the workers are saying. A part of the job, that they are not being compensated for.
It has no analogue in successful self-employment. Another job they could have chosen instead is a luxury not often available to poverty bound working poor.
No one is talking about travel time. We’re talking about being prevented from leaving when your shift is over.
Sometimes? Hey, guess how many paid days off an American employee is guaranteed, Guess how many sick days.
