McDonald’s Workers File Wage Suits in 3 States

[phillygirl]

In two lawsuits filed in Michigan against McDonald’s and two Detroit-area franchise owners, workers claimed that their restaurants told them to show up to work, but then ordered them to wait an hour or two without pay until enough customers arrived.

In three lawsuits brought in California, the workers claim that the McDonald’s restaurants employing them did not pay them for all hours worked, shaved hours from pay records and denied them required meal periods and rest breaks.

The lawyers said most McDonald’s franchisees used software provided by the company that calculates employee-to-sales ratios and instructs restaurants to reduce staffing when sales drop below a certain level in any given hour. As a result, the lawyers said, some McDonald’s workers in the suit were ordered, upon reporting to work, not to clock in for an hour or two and instead wait until more customers arrived.

Yeah, this happened all the time. We would clock out and then the manager would manually adjust our hours to compensate. In this way the hourlies wouldn't show a bad overhead to sales ratio. It wasn't a big deal, really. It was a scam for the manager to look better than he/she was. Sometimes they sent us home. For the underaged kid, the clock out was a way to skirt the rules on how many hours you could work, etc. I was never underaged, so it didn't effect me, but it did my brother. He was happy to work as many hours as possible and my mom had no issue with it. Now, I think you have to be 17 to work, so it's a bigger issue. Back then I think you could be as young as 14 to work, but on limited areas.

[Gramps]

Yeah, this happened all the time. We would clock out and then the manager would manually adjust our hours to compensate. In this way the hourlies wouldn't show a bad overhead to sales ratio. It wasn't a big deal, really. It was a scam for the manager to look better than he/she was. Sometimes they sent us home. For the underaged kid, the clock out was a way to skirt the rules on how many hours you could work, etc. I was never underaged, so it didn't effect me, but it did my brother. He was happy to work as many hours as possible and my mom had no issue with it. Now, I think you have to be 17 to work, so it's a bigger issue. Back then I think you could be as young as 14 to work, but on limited areas.

In '60 I was fired as the stock boy at the local 5 and dime.
Some fed group found out that I had to use a manual elevator to move the stock from the dock to the second floor stock room.

One of the large companies that runs call centers settled a class action suit relative to doing work but not being on the clock. They adjusted their software so that a call agent cannot clock on until 5 min prior to the shift time start in the main computer.

[phillygirl]

In '60 I was fired as the stock boy at the local 5 and dime.
Some fed group found out that I had to use a manual elevator to move the stock from the dock to the second floor stock room.

One of the large companies that runs call centers settled a class action suit relative to doing work but not being on the clock. They adjusted their software so that a call agent cannot clock on until 5 min prior to the shift time start in the main computer.

As I recall they used to get around the overtime in similar fashion by clocking us out and putting the hours on the next day. Since under a certain age couldn't work past 7:00 on a school night, they played that game as well.

I'm not saying any of that was appropriate, just that it happened. We knew. Our parents knew. We all needed the money and were just happy to be able to make it. $3.35/hour beat $2/hour babysitting. Of course, still not as good as the $20/lawn I was getting for cutting lawns, but I only had about 3 or 4 lawns to do, and it was seasonal. Great money when I was 12, but it sort of dried up. Now, kids have a tough time even getting those jobs, for various reasons.

[Gramps]

As I recall they used to get around the overtime in similar fashion by clocking us out and putting the hours on the next day. Since under a certain age couldn't work past 7:00 on a school night, they played that game as well.

I'm not saying any of that was appropriate, just that it happened. We knew. Our parents knew. We all needed the money and were just happy to be able to make it. $3.35/hour beat $2/hour babysitting. Of course, still not as good as the $20/lawn I was getting for cutting lawns, but I only had about 3 or 4 lawns to do, and it was seasonal. Great money when I was 12, but it sort of dried up. Now, kids have a tough time even getting those jobs, for various reasons.

Let me enlarge on the call center class action suit.

As I understand it, most call centers operate under contract to some national or multi-national firm. The contract between the call center operator and the 'client' is usually a flat fee for the time an 'agent' is actually talking on the phone to a customer of the contracting client. Runs about $40/hr. on average. That is the basis of the business. If an agent spends 7 hours actually talking to the client's customers,the call center operator bills the client 7x40 for that phone time. To reduce lost time, non revenue paid hours, the call center has parameters for the people taking the calls. The class action accused the call center operator of encouraging or looking away when 'agents' were taking calls and not clocked on. Taking calls while not clocked on enhanced the agents stats and qualified them for commissions based on performance.

[phillygirl]

Let me enlarge on the call center class action suit.

As I understand it, most call centers operate under contract to some national or multi-national firm. The contract between the call center operator and the 'client' is usually a flat fee for the time an 'agent' is actually talking on the phone to a customer of the contracting client. Runs about $40/hr. on average. That is the basis of the business. If an agent spends 7 hours actually talking to the client's customers,the call center operator bills the client 7x40 for that phone time. To reduce lost time, non revenue paid hours, the call center has parameters for the people taking the calls. The class action accused the call center operator of encouraging or looking away when 'agents' were taking calls and not clocked on. Taking calls while not clocked on enhanced the agents stats and qualified them for commissions based on performance.

yep. It's all about the ratio.

[scott]

Let me enlarge on the call center class action suit.

As I understand it, most call centers operate under contract to some national or multi-national firm. The contract between the call center operator and the 'client' is usually a flat fee for the time an 'agent' is actually talking on the phone to a customer of the contracting client. Runs about $40/hr. on average. That is the basis of the business. If an agent spends 7 hours actually talking to the client's customers,the call center operator bills the client 7x40 for that phone time. To reduce lost time, non revenue paid hours, the call center has parameters for the people taking the calls. The class action accused the call center operator of encouraging or looking away when 'agents' were taking calls and not clocked on. Taking calls while not clocked on enhanced the agents stats and qualified them for commissions based on performance.

I used to work "off the clock" all the time when I had a performance bonus on the line. It seems strange that it would be illegal today since it's my choice.

[Gramps]

yep. It's all about the ratio.

The 'margin'.
I'm amazed that there are still US based call centers.
There was a big movement to offshore to India, some years back, not by the companies that didn't want to pay US wages, but by the large call center operators in an effort to maximize profits.

Then there was an influx to the Philippines.

The latest, from what I can see is the Carribean and Northern South America.

For some years I was a DishNet subscriber.
Every time I called them I got some person with an Indian accent... my immediate response was... move me to someone who has English as their first language please.

[Gramps]

I used to work "off the clock" all the time when I had a performance bonus on the line. It seems strange that it would be illegal today since it's my choice.

NLRB will get involved.
Depending on the size of the company, and the potential of revenue, any lawyer who does class action will get involved with one person bitching.
It takes one person bitching for NLRB to get involved.
It takes one person bitching to a lawyer friend to start it.

[Novaheart]

In '60 I was fired as the stock boy at the local 5 and dime.
Some fed group found out that I had to use a manual elevator to move the stock from the dock to the second floor stock room.

One of the large companies that runs call centers settled a class action suit relative to doing work but not being on the clock. They adjusted their software so that a call agent cannot clock on until 5 min prior to the shift time start in the main computer.

They don't make those anymore. I called an elevator company to get a price on one and he acted as if I had come over on the Ark because I was familiar with them. We had one where I used to work, it was fun to let it free fall from the second floor and bounce off the spring bumpers at the bottom.

[Novaheart]

As I recall they used to get around the overtime in similar fashion by clocking us out and putting the hours on the next day. Since under a certain age couldn't work past 7:00 on a school night, they played that game as well.

I'm not saying any of that was appropriate, just that it happened. We knew. Our parents knew. We all needed the money and were just happy to be able to make it. $3.35/hour beat $2/hour babysitting. Of course, still not as good as the $20/lawn I was getting for cutting lawns, but I only had about 3 or 4 lawns to do, and it was seasonal. Great money when I was 12, but it sort of dried up. Now, kids have a tough time even getting those jobs, for various reasons.

I hate the reality, but I don't hire kids to do lawns anymore. The liability is too great.

[Gramps]

They don't make those anymore. I called an elevator company to get a price on one and he acted as if I had come over on the Ark because I was familiar with them. We had one where I used to work, it was fun to let it free fall from the second floor and bounce off the spring bumpers at the bottom.

We didn't have bumpers. The elevator went into the basement. The receiving dock was at ground level. Stock was on the second floor... but actually there was a semi floor between ground and stock.. the mezzanine where the offices were.

Two ropes, up, down, and a brake.
Fun shit for a 13 yr old.

[Adam]

I hate the reality, but I don't hire kids to do lawns anymore. The liability is too great.

That's a hell of a good point.



W/R/T the whole "show up at 8 but wait until 10 to clock in," that was certainly routine in all sorts of jobs when I was 16. My first "real job" (meaning the first time that I was actually on a W-2 somewhere) was at a car wash, and that was the rule, not the exception. We opened at 8:00, but it only required two people to set up for opening, so those people were clocked in (one was the manager), and then everyone else waited until we started getting customers. Some days, there were people there waiting at 8:00, so everyone went full-tilt as soon as they got there, but a lot of times, people would have to wait around until 9, 10, 11 o'clock before they officially went on the clock. We all just accepted it and understood that's the way things were. Everyone I knew who was in a "service" job had the same circumstance: my neighbor/friend down the street was a caddy at the local country club and got paid basically like a waiter ($1.75/hour, I think, back then), and he didn't go on the clock until he had a golfer with whom to go out. Some days that was 7:00 in the morning, other days it wasn't until 10:00. The trick everyone learned was to be a damn good caddy and therefore get requested by the people who liked to tee off at dawn. Then you were assured to be on the clock for the most hours that day. That assumed that the earlybirds were decent tippers, and some weren't, so you had to learn to pick and choose. I was a parts runner for a car dealership for a while in college. Same thing: I got there early, and there usually were parts requests ready to go at 7:00, but sometimes I had to wait until 8:00 to get all the parts pulled, and the clock didn't start until I turned the key on that truck.


All part of the learning experience back then. Nowadays it's "unfair."

[Lanie]

I used to work "off the clock" all the time when I had a performance bonus on the line. It seems strange that it would be illegal today since it's my choice.

When I worked at Wal-Mart, I wasn't allowed to do anything off of the clock. If I was talking to somebody about work related stuff and they realized I was off the clock, I was told to go. On another job, I came in and immediately started working on the coffee. I was told to clock in first so I can't subject them to lawsuit. lol.

I understand why it's like that though. Some places do abuse their power. There was one place I worked at in which my supervisor sort of lost 48 hours when we switched to a new computer system. That's not acceptable.

[Gingersnap]

Yep - another under-aged, off-the-clock victim here.

I never cared since I was getting paid for what I actually worked and actual over-time for actual over-time stuff. You could only work 14 hours a week or something like that if you were under 16. I had to get my folks to sign off on some form.

In reality, I wanted to work as many hours as I could without screwing up my school activities and lame social life. My folks did not have the money to do allowances nor would they have thought getting paid for nothing was a good idea.

We were paid for chores over and above our normal family stuff but I was the youngest and the only girl so most of the better paying chores were already taken. I loved working. So much better than baby-sitting.

[phillygirl]

When I first got involved in the management of my firm I learned that the employees' were getting paid a month after they had worked. We still have no idea how that occurred, but I took everyone at their word. It is ridiculous to wait a month to receive your wages, os we just finally doubled up a pay period to get everyone caught up.