When Your Boss Steals Your Wages: The Invisible Epidemic That’s Sweeping America

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/labor/when-your-boss-steals-your-wages-invisible-epidemic-thats-sweeping-america




Imagine you’ve just landed a job with a big-time retailer. Your task is to load and unload boxes from trucks and containers. It’s back-breaking work. You toil 12 to 16 hours a day, often without a lunch break. Sweat drenches your clothes in the 90-degree heat, but you keep going: your kids need their dinner. One day, your supervisor tells you that instead of being paid an hourly wage, you will now get paid for the number of containers you load or unload. This will be great for you, your supervisor says: More money! But you open your next paycheck to find it shrunken to the point that you are no longer even making minimum wage. You complain to your supervisor, who promptly sends you home without pay for the day. If you pipe up again, you’ll be looking for another job.

Everardo Carrillo says that's just what happened to him and other low-wage employees who worked at a Southern California warehouse run by a Walmart contractor. Carrillo and his fellow workers have launched a multi-class-action lawsuit for massive wage theft ( Everardo Carrillo et al. v. Schneider Logistics) in a case that’s finally bringing national attention to an invisible epidemic. (Walmart, despite its claims that it has no responsibility for what its contractors do, has been named a defendant.)

What happened to Carrillo happens every day in America. And it could happen to you.

How big is the problem?

Americans like to think that a fair day’s work brings a fair day’s pay. Cheating workers of their wages may seem like a problem of 19th-century sweatshops. But it’s back and taking a terrible toll. We’re talking billions of dollars in wages; millions of workers affected each year. A gigantic heist is being perpetrated against working people: they’re getting screwed on overtime, denied their tips, shortchanged on benefits, defrauded on payroll, and handed paychecks that bounce like rubber balls. A conservative estimate of unpaid overtime alone shows that it costs workers at least $19 billion per year.

[Mr. Evil]

1. Well,

big corporations stealing billions of dollars from seemingly powerless workers. Does it really surprise you? This will make a splash in the news and then a settlement will be agreed upon. No one will go to jail. Back to business as usual.

[aristocles]

4. I bet you don't know that tne skull and crossed swords is a Nazi SS symbol

[WinkyDink]

8. You might want to re-think that assertion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger#By_submarines

[independentpiney]

9. and I bet you know that the ss insignia looks nothing like his avatar

but just wanted to start an argument.

[jeff47]

10. No, the Nazi SS symbol was a skull with crossed bones. (nt)

[Laelth]

2. Thank goodness for Plaintiffs' lawyers, no?

At least someone has the power and the willingness to make companies pay when they steal from their employees.

-Laelth

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

3. Reeks of the, "Comp Time"...

... that more employers are pushing to use as compensation for their employees. Basically, the employee forgoes any overtime pay, instead getting a day off during, "slow season", instead of being actually paid for their work. Citibank started doing this at their flagship credit card processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota over 20 years ago.

[KentuckyWoman]

5. It happens to salary people too.

Back in the 80's or 90's congress let employers classify low level office workers as "salary". No more weekend, holiday or overtime pay at all for the office peons. Not to mention being told you have paid vacation as a benefit, if you don't use it you lose it, and then being denied any time you put in for a vacation day until you get screwed out of that too.

Let's face it, the job creators are just offended that they have to pay us AT ALL.

[CrispyQ]

18. Draconian drug laws & the prison industrial complex to the rescue!

At least one state has a program in place that allows some inmates to 'work for free in exchange for time off their sentences.'

[WinkyDink]

6. And then WalMart PTB COMPLAIN that people aren't buying enough from their stores!

[rosesaylavee]

7. My work has this going on...

I pointed this out in a round about way at a phone conference earlier this year. We are expected to produce so many widgets (not wanting to reveal what we produce) per day no matter what. One of our people has been working extra hours to get a larger bonus so the remaining people in our group were asked why we weren't producing as much as he was --- (we work from home). I mentioned that 'perhaps' some of us were working extra hours to get a larger bonus and asked them point blank if the expectation was for us to work beyond our 8 hour shift to make the daily goal? One supervisor said well, some people work an extra 20 to 30 minutes to make their goal and another supervisor said, oh no, everyone needs to be done at 5 sharp and no working beyond that. The meeting finished with yet another supervisor stating that if anyone had any problems meeting their daily goals to speak with him. Mixed messages much?

[Samantha]

11. I believe the term for that is called "Piece Work"

Cynic that I am, I believe some employers are moving to this in an effort to undermine the minimum wage laws. However, that would violate FLSA.

All individually covered homework and piecework is subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) minimum wage, overtime, and record-keeping requirements, although there are exceptions for some types of agricultural work. The piece rate must be the one actually paid during non-overtime hours and must be enough to yield at least the minimum wage per hour. The payment to the employee is converted into the “regular rate" for the pay period, and if it is less than the minimum hourly wage, the employer must pay the difference to comply with the state or federal minimum wage, whichever is higher. (emphasis added)

http://business.yourdictionary.com/piecework

Sam

[socialist_n_TN]

14. See my post #13. If you bitch about your piece work pay.....

well, you're a "contractor". Your "contract" is immediately terminated and you're out of any work.

[Samantha]

16. Being an independent contractor is a different story I believe

You are self-employed and not protected as would be a literal employee of the company. So if you signed a contract with all the terms specifically spelled out, that changes everything. But I think (and I am not an expert) if you work for someone that has a contract and you are an employee of that contractor, that contractor as a businessman I believe would be held to the rule stated in my earlier post. But contractors hire sub-contractors sometimes, so I am not sure exactly what your situation is.

A lot of employers are not hiring employees any longer, just contractors. No sick leave, no vacation, no nothing. It is a great way to circumvent labor laws which protect a literal employee.

We need a labor lawyer to get involved here. But a think a clearer picture of your status would be important to know. Perhaps that is in your post which I have not yet read.

Sam

[mulsh]

12. Very informative, don't miss the Matthew Yglasias article linked

to this one. Wow, I've rarely read anything as souless and vile as Mr. Yglasias's views on worker safety. glad he's just a stenographer.

[socialist_n_TN]

13. A couple of things here from personal experience..........

Since the shit hit the fan in the mortgage business, I haven't had a job that wasn't considered a "contractor". Which meant that I was responsible for my own taxes, including the extra SS employer part of the SS tax. Also, since they weren't taking out taxes, the employers thought they could pay me less and get away with it. I'm out of mortgages now and working a job that does take taxes out, but what those years resulted in is about $6k in taxes owed that I'm paying on time now. And of course, the way the work was structured, I shouldn't have been considered a "contractor" at all, but a regular employee. IOW, I was misclassified and couldn't really do anything about it and keep the jobs. And one last thing about this. Some of my pay was based on bonuses for closed loans and there was only ONE employer out of about 4 or 5 that actually paid me those bonuses after they let me go (my "contract" ran out). So I considered that wage theft. The problem with wage theft as a "contractor" is that you have to go to small claims court to prove the wages you're owed and THAT can be a problem too.

I've worked with a group here in Nashville called Worker's Dignity that fights wage theft cases around town. It happens a WHOLE lot more than most people acknowledge or even know about. This group is majority Latino because this happens a lot to immigrants who don't have a lot of knowledge or experience with American laws and labor practices.

I guess my point is that this is a pretty common problem for a LOT of people, especially the poor.

[Samantha]

17. Okay, I see now

You were definitely exploited in some cases but if you did anything about it you would have acquired a reputation as a trouble maker. Once that label is attached, it is even harder to get employment. So I am sorry, I don't have any suggestions under the circumstances but if there are any labor lawyers reading this thread, maybe someone will be able to give you some suggestions.

PS I am from Knoxville Tennessee but now live in College Park MD

Sam

[redqueen]

15. K&R

[L0oniX]

19. That's what I call ...prompting or promoting embezzlement.