Mar
26
Blog Post #11: Unfair Treatment of Employees
March 26, 2015 | Leave a Comment
All of the internships I’ve been involved with state in a contract, given to me well before the first employment date, the working hours I would be responsible for. Additionally, when I applied, many of these postings claim “flexible hours” in the sense that I can work around my school schedule without the fear of being fired. Never having experienced anything aside from the privilege I now realize it is, I was very surprised to read the New York Times article by Jodi Kantor concerning the hectic working life of Jannette Navarro.
While juggling the life of a single mom, Jannette is also hectically racing to work whenever Starbucks needs her. However, she is not informed of her working hours until the day prior and must make arrangements concerning the care of her child. Additionally, these unpredictable and unsteady hours are taking a toll on her personally and academic life. Jannette is unable to have proper rest periods, let alone have time to plan for dates with her boyfriend, lessons to obtain her driver’s license, or even finish her degree. She is on the beck and call of her company and her entire life, including what groceries to buy, are based on the working hour calculations of a computer program meant to earn the huge corporation a bit more cash.
Starbucks, however, is not the only company using this inhumane tactic. Amazon, the gigantic company reaping in so much in sales and income, have been fighting to not pay their workers for the time spent going through security checks. That, I find, is absurd. Workers spend at least 25 minutes of their day going through these checks and should be compensated as the security checks are required for their jobs. However, the Supreme Court ruled that these security checks are not “integral and indispensable” to the “productive work that employees are employed to perform.” I do not find this argument logical. Employees are employed to fill orders in the Amazon warehouse. A part of filling these orders is to go through the security checks. As such, these security checks are integral and indispensable – the company requires it. If the employees were not employed to go through these security checks, Amazon should not be requiring that employees go through them. The fact that they are, however, means that employees should be compensated for spending time doing so. It is integral to performing their job.
Even worse, I believe, is McDonald’s. According to Cohen Milstein, McDonald’s actually have its workers perform extra tasks without any intention of paying overtime compensation for these services. After so many lawsuits, no substantial results have turned up. A huge portion of their workers are minimum-wage workers, which we’ve already discussed is already too low and not sufficient to subsist on without overtime. These huge corporations bring in enough sales and income to afford to pay their employees better. If not a better pay, they can definitely afford to treat their workers more humanely by offering pay for the time worked and better working hours so employees are not scrambling to find arrangements in order to make it to work.
There is an economic principle concerning utils, or the perceived ability of something to satisfy needs and desires. Let’s say a man is extremely hungry. The first hamburger he eats will be, let’s say, 10 utils. We can think of utils as happiness points. Eating the second hamburger may bring just as much utils as the first. However, as the man continues to eat, each hamburger brings in less utils. By the time he hits the tenth hamburger, the number of utils may be 1, 0, or even negative. Does this concept not working concerning money earned? Is there a level that, when crossed, will influence people to not care how much more they make in surplus? These mega companies are reaping in huge profits, even during the recession. However, they are still not satisfied. They consistently search for new ways to may fast cash rather than focus on treating their workers more humanely. Does their thirst of revenue outweigh the rights of their employees?
-Amy (SiJia) You
