Discussion for article #230965
Who is surprised with the Roberts court?
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Unanimous? WTF?
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I’m not going to blame the SCOTUS or anyone on it for Congress’ failure, which is what this particular situation is. People need to learn that some of these decisions are not made in a vacuum into which we can insert a decision about what we feel is right or wrong. Here, Congress wrote laws that are proving to be outdated due to employment practices that are becoming more common, but which were not prevalent at the time the laws were written and are not wrong in and of themselves (in fact, they are quite understandable if you’ve ever seen the inside of an Amazon warehouse), although they are arguably unfair. If you want to kick some shins about it, Congress should be the target and they should be called upon to change those laws to make the situation more fair to employees.
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OK then, how 'bout this. If my shift is done, and they won’t let me leave, I charge them with kidnapping.
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I don’t understand the “principal duties” explanation. So if my work requires me to wash dishes for an hour before I go home (I’m in IT) they don’t have to pay me for that because it’s not related to my principal duties?
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I think it means things you are asked to do on the job in some fashion. If your job normally was to wash dishes and they had you go over, than the law says you are owed over time. By this logic they could have the employees shovel snow, as it is not their job and do not have to pay them. But could make them do it in some way before going home…
TPM:
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that warehouse workers who fill orders for retail giant Amazon don’t have to be paid for time spent waiting to pass through security checks at the end of their shifts. … The justices said federal law does not require companies to pay employees for the extra time because it is unrelated to their primary job duties.
That is such bullshit. I expect that from the right wing of the bench, but I’m flabbergasted that the moderate wing went along with it too.
We really need to get unions into some of these places again, because clearly the government isn’t protecting workers rights anymore.
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The decision was unanimous, and it makes sense.
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You also don’t get paid for waiting at the cafeteria line, waiting to park your car in a company garage, etc.
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If you wash dishes as part of your regular routine, it is part of your principal duties. And if you are delayed from doing it because there is no hot water, you get paid while you wait because it is part of your principal duties.
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If employees are shoveling snow, it should be on company time, or they should get paid extra. That’s much different than waiting on a line for a security check. And as the article says, there is really rarely any long wait time.
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Those are personal choices, not at the behest of an employer. If you are doing something at the behest of an employer that requires your time, then the employer should pay you for your time. Period.
And as the article says, there is really rarely any long wait time.
Then the cost should be negligible and there’s no reason not to pay for it. The only reason for the employer to go to the expense of taking it to trial, and all the way to the Supreme Court, is that the cost is not negligible. Therefore, the wait times are long enough that the employer deems it cheaper to go to court than pay for the employee’s time or hire the necessary staff to speed up the security checks.
Both of which are the employer’s choices.
I was, of course, trying to pull out an extreme example. And even if it is a few minutes late it really would mess with an evening. Should it take 20 minutes on average that is 20 minutes longer it takes away from any personal life things and 20 minutes longer to potentially get into more road waits and the like.
It is very much stealing from the employee either way. They are not allowed to leave until they pass through. MEaning they are getting to wait in line and not being paid for a tool to potentially save the company a little bit of money on the edges.