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Class 17 – Just-in Time Staffing – Mohd Sakib
March 25, 2015 | Leave a Comment
Just-in-time staffing has been a recently significant problem due to the scheduling struggles it creates for various families, especially those that are low-middle income and are single parents. The article “Working Anything but 9 to 5” by Jodi Kantor provides a very troubling glimpse into the life of Jannette Navarro; a 22-year-old Starbucks barista, and one of many employees whose lives are thrown into chaos due to unfair and chaotic company scheduling practices. I was absolutely shocked by the fact that Starbucks’ employees are “waiting on [their] job to control their lives” as the scheduling software just throws new work schedules at the employees for them to deal with. This new type of technological, operational workflow helps companies cut costs and increase profitability as employees can be sent home when it is normally slow, and they can be brought in at irregular hours when the respective stores are busy. The companies are essentially transferring the labor costs down to the employees, throwing their lives in utter chaos. Although I think this type of labor system is very beneficial to the corporations, and almost ideal regarding their employee costs, it still is unrealistic because of the external affects it has on their workforce. Unfortunately, the managers don’t seem to know of these secondary affects as in the case of Ms. Navarro, which in itself seems suspicious as the managers may be turning their eye, ignoring these personal problems for their own monetary benefits.
I cannot even begin to fathom how Ms. Navarro dealt with her life essentially breaking down before her eyes due to this “just-in-time staffing”. It is terrible to see this consequence in action, especially since Starbucks recently prided itself in offering a path to a college degree for its work force. The scheduling system completely defeats the purpose of the initiative however, because if the employees can’t even find time to sleep properly or bring their children to day care centers, how can they focus on the online courses. I definitely agree with Zeynep Ton, who is a professor at M.I.T. that studies retail operations, when he states “The same technology could be used to create more stability and predictability”. I believe that being able to create schedules with more core hours and only some flexible ones can be beneficial to both the corporation and the employees, as they are more functional and able to balance both their personal lives and work. The thought that my work schedule changes every week with barely a couple of days to prepare in advance is truly just ridiculous in this day in age, when there has been so much legislation and initiatives to improve the work life of employees.
Another disturbing common practice that has come into the spotlight recently is unfair wage theft from low-paid fast-food employees. The recent class action lawsuit against McDonald’s presents yet another troubling glimpse into the lives of low-paid or low-income laborers. McDonald’s has clearly systematically stole wages from their employees “by forcing them to work off the clock, shaving hours off their time cards, and not paying them overtime, among other practices.” It is very infuriating to see large corporations such as McDonalds, which create billions of dollars in revenues go to such measures to cut costs by a relatively small margin. Depriving workers of their timely meal periods, rest breaks, pay for all the time that they worked while forcing them to pay for their own uniforms is absolutely ridiculous. The specific branches from which these employees reported these problems cannot really make excuses as to why these issues are so prevalent. This is because it’s shown to be a reoccurring theme across various states with numerous employees complaining that their wages have been unfairly taken one way or another. Catherine Ruckelshaus summarizes these issues accurately when she says that “Hidden from view among salaried workers, wage theft is a scourge that eats away at the livelihoods of already-underpaid hourly workers”; a scourge that urgently needs to be fixed.
McDonalds and fast-food restaurants aren’t the only corporations that illegally steal wages from their employees. The article “Supreme Court rules Amazon doesn’t have to pay for after-hours time in security lines” by Robert Barnes shows another labor force issue that comes to fruition when a company with a large supply chain implements extraneous employee procedures. “The Supreme Court reversed a lower court ruling that found in favor of Amazon.com warehouse workers, who alleged they spent up to 25 minutes waiting through security checks at the end of their shifts.” The Court sided with Amazon due to the tricky interpretation of whether these activities were “integral and indispensable to the job they are hired to perform”. Since waiting in line for 25 minutes through security checks were not essential for their jobs, the class-action lawsuit failed. This scenario is truly a complicated one because although the checks were not integral to the performance of the job, it is necessary for the employees to actually keep the job. I think its unfair that the employees are not paid for that time since it’s a requisite for the job anyways. The Court should really take another look at the Portal-to-Portal Act and whether or not its ruling is fair for the activities that are taking place before and after a worker’s shift.
Its practices like these that really hurt any chances that low-income individuals may have to climb the social ladder and close the gap in income inequality. Just-in time staffing coupled with wage theft by large corporations have put a serious dent in income and social mobility for countless laborers whose lives have been thrown into chaos one way or another. The government and the courts need to take a closer look at how employees are being treated and how larger companies are taking advantage of their immense labor force. The Starbucks and McDonalds of the world cannot continue to reap the benefits from the inequitable labor force system that they have implemented according to their liking. I feel like the primary labor issue that is in the news today is the topic of minimum wage. The public needs to peak behind the labor curtain and understand that there are various other problems that should be solved first to help income inequality, and then move on to new reforms and initiatives.
