Mar
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Blog Post #11
March 26, 2015 | Leave a Comment
I think not having a stable work schedule describes the life of many students working part-time, where their schedule changes every week and they have to figure out how to plan the rest of the week based around that. This unstable schedule forces people to realize what their priority is. Will they focus on school, work, or their kids? I feel for a lot of the people who have to face the same situation as Navarro, because eventually family might get tired of accommodating their own schedules for another family member. If that happens, then there’s even more strain on single parents to figure out how to schedule their life. It’s sad to think that there might be many more people like her out there, but not every restaurant/job can accommodate their schedules and they have to struggle to make their life work out.
It’s sad to know how businesses like McDonald’s that are already paying so low are trying to get away with paying even less to their hard-working employees. In the Michigan section, it states, ” workers assert McDonald’s regularly forces workers to show up for work at a scheduled time but then has them wait without pay until the store gets busy enough.” If that’s the case, are the workers also forced to work without pay or can they just stand by idly? From experience, if I wasn’t clocked in to work, then I wouldn’t be obligated to work and my coworkers would share the same sentiment and tell me to not “work for free,” in the case that I was too early for work and was helping out. There have been plenty of cases against McDonald’s for chiseling away at the already low wages, so I hope that they will actually have an effect on how McDonald’s operates. Otherwise, people might still have no choice but to work at McDonalds or similar fast food restaurants and have to tolerate this kind of practice.
I think it’s extremely unfair how companies are trying to cut corners by making workers stay extra time before and after their shift without paying them. Like that one employee said about Amazon, the security checks were required so if they didn’t attend the checks, they would be fired. Therefore, they should be compensated for the time that is now lost that they could have spent at a different job earning money. I think Amazon could see the wait at the security line as something similar to the commute to the warehouse. For example, people might live far away and if people wanted to be compensated for that, Amazon could only employ people who lived close enough; they probably see the wait as just another extension of a commute home and therefore not worth compensating.
Those three articles all make their employees seem like slaves. Workers would be sent home when sales were slow and then called on demand, as if their entire life revolved around work and they didn’t have other priorities such as taking care of kids or getting an education. And then McDonald’s and Amazon getting away with paying even less than the minimum wage and the workers not being able to change it, as evidenced by the Supreme Court siding with Amazon.
An interesting point mentioned in the comments of the Amazon article was ab0ut how if the security guards slowed down the process enough of checking out the employees to meet their overtime requirement, they would be compensated for that extra time because it would be considered performing an “integral part” of their job. The employees whose time is being wasted won’t be paid for that extra wait, but the people who were responsible for the delay would be. The guards may not necessarily want to take their time, but they have no reason to rush either. This possibility also leaves a haunting thought in the back of your mind, as in the guards could take their time if they wanted and be paid while the employees weren’t.
-Margaret Wang
