On-Call Shifts: The Latest Corporate Shame

[Teamster Jeff]

>>>
Constantly high unemployment! Low wages always! No employee bargaining power! A corporate paradise!

This paradise has enriched the already-rich investor elite and rewarded top executives with multimillion-dollar pay packages. It also lets corporations treat the masses of people in today’s workforce like Kleenexes: Just use ‘em and toss ‘em – after all, they’re cheap, plentiful… and disposable.

Indeed, taskmasters-in-suits have now redefined the term “hired” to mean that you’re tethered to a corporation full-time, but you actually work and get paid for only the few hours a week when the boss calls. This nefarious practice, known as “on-call shifts,” is all the rage among national retail chains. Such giants as Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and Urban Outfitters require employees to work without set schedules and to be available to have their strings yanked at any time, day or night, even on weekends, with as little as two hours’ notice. Likewise, if customer traffic in a store is slow, retail workers who got dressed up, battled the morning commute, and reported on time, can simply be sent away after an hour or so – with no pay for their lost hours.

A recent survey of some 400 retail employees in New York City found that only 17 percent have a set schedule. Those with no set hours, also have no set income – and no life.
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http://blog.usw.org/2013/05/21/on-call-shifts-the-latest-corporate-shame/

[Brickbat]

1. Railroads dealt with this by organizing and negotiating punitive contracts that cut way back on

jobs that were killed after workers showed, minimum pay for a shift, and so on. These companies do shit like this because they can.

[leftyohiolib]

7. companies do it because people accept it

[Brickbat]

8. Yep.

The company doesn't ever push with an end game in sight. It just keeps pushing until it meets resistance.

[JustAnotherGen]

2. Old Practice

I worked a branch of Express very briefly in 1995 . . . Even for a part time college student that was a pain the ass. So I walked down the mall hall to Jenss (locally owned dept store) and got solid hours.

I'm shocked they are still getting away with that after all of these years.

[mn9driver]

3. The answer is a contract. Which means a union.

This kind of crap will never go away until employees organize and make it go away.

[Sherman A1]

6. Agreed

You hit the nail on the head.

[hollysmom]

4. ha ha - when my company offered to get me a beeper in the 70's

I asked them if they floated since I sailed most weekends.
Then in the 00's the company wanted me to install their software on my home computer so I didn't have to work in the office so late. I told them they had to buy me a computer just for home use,. I would not put their software on my computer and I would not remember to tote a lap top back and forth from the office. Basically, i put in at least 70 hours a week, but would not work once I got home - home was home = relaxation. People who worked at home always seemed to be on the computer from the amount e-mails I got from them every evening.
it is getting harder and harder to avoid working 24/7. good thing I am retired.

[Teamster Jeff]

5. Oh yeah.. I remember beepers