Staples threatens to fire employees who work more than 25 hours a week

Business Insider ^ | 2/9/15 | Ashley Lutz

[Nachum]

Part-time Staples workers are furious that they could be fired for working more than 25 hours a week. The company implemented the policy to avoid paying benefits under the Affordable Care Act, reports Sapna Maheshwari at Buzzfeed. The healthcare law mandates that workers with more than 30 hours a week receive healthcare. If Staples doesn´t offer benefits, it could be fined $3,000 in penalties per person. Buzzfeed spoke with several Staples workers who revealed their hours have been drastically cut over the past year. Many reported working as few as 20 hours. The workers started a petition on Change.org asking

[tanknetter]

I think you’re an optimist on that.

The way I see it playing out is that companies are going to want to minimize the number of employees/paperwork while still staying within the 29 hour threshold. In decent-sized workforces It’s cheaper to have an employee and 1/3 of an employees time adding up to 40 hours than having two employees adding up to 40 hours.

The result is going to be take-it/leave-it offerings of a flat 29 hour position. That forces workers into a 2-job 58-hour work week. They’ll make more money than working 40 hours, but it’ll be by force of necessity and they won’t be eligible for overtime.

Just another example of how Obamacare is really a Corporatist policy.

[kearnyirish2]

I wonder if they made the case that some sort of confidentiality agreement had been breeched; what did they uncover?

[Nepeta]

I wonder if they made the case that some sort of confidentiality agreement had been breeched; what did they uncover?

I have no idea what they found. This was before email, cell phones, and much of the rest; even fax machines were rare. We had computers, but only to operate the instrumentation. Most of those computers were specific to an instrument, and did nothing else.

The idea that a corporation can request the phone records of the local company AND GET THEM made everyone queasy at the time, and rightly so.

P&G was nutty about security, but not always logical. They hired ex-FBI guys. If you left a shopping list on your desk at night, unlocked, you might find a nastygram in the morning BUT at the same time, they hired legions of temps with NO LOYALTY who worked on projects the company was betting on. Some of these people waltzed across town and joined Kao (aka Jergens).

[Nepeta]

I wonder if they made the case that some sort of confidentiality agreement had been breeched; what did they uncover?

I have no idea what they found. This was before email, cell phones, and much of the rest; even fax machines were rare. We had computers, but only to operate the instrumentation. Most of those computers were specific to an instrument, and did nothing else.

The idea that a corporation can request the phone records of the local company AND GET THEM made everyone queasy at the time, and rightly so.

P&G was nutty about security, but not always logical. They hired ex-FBI guys. If you left a shopping list on your desk at night, unlocked, you might find a nastygram in the morning BUT at the same time, they hired legions of temps with NO LOYALTY who worked on projects the company was betting on. Some of these people waltzed across town and joined Kao (aka Jergens).

[kearnyirish2]

Sounds like an odd place to work, though I suspect more & more places are like that now.

[cynwoody]

It is illegal to “donate” work, off the clock

Where is that written?

Not that I'd do it, absent significant stock options, of course!

[SamAdams76]

The whole concept of "hourly work" is demeaning. I've worked a salary job (exempt) for decades and would never consider working hourly again. The whole "punching a time clock" culture robs one of dignity in my opinion. It reduces you to nothing more than a hired hand.

As a salaried employee, I have the luxury of not keeping track of the hours I work. For example, I stayed in Manhattan last week preparing a presentation for an RFP our company is competing for. Our workday spilled into the late evenings, including dinner and drinks, as we worked on our pitch and then we collaborated from home over the weekend fine-tuning it through Adobe Connect sessions. We easily spent 80-100 hours preparing it and nobody on our team was whining or bitching about the hours worked. For us, it's rewarding work, especially when we win the bid and bring large contracts to the company (and commissions to ourselves).

People get so hung up on the hours they work and whether or not they are getting "compensated" for every minute they are "on the clock."

No wonders employers are gun shy about the hourly employees. They don't want to expose themselves to litigation so they are extra careful. This is not good for the workers, who find themselves expendable - just a cog in the machine.

If you are self-motivated and want to live the American dream, pursue professional; commission-based; or managerial work where you are "exempt" from these ridiculous labor laws - which only serve to keep YOU down.

[Caipirabob]

That is a pretty big financial pebalty incurred if they go one hour over.

SOCIALISM: The totalitarian tyranny that's fun for everyone! Now with ridiculous penalties! GET SOME NOW...

[Nepeta]

Sounds like an odd place to work, though I suspect more & more places are like that now.

Every segment of the company had its own culture. For example, the Health Care PhDs Would Not Condescend to consume lunch at the same table as their technicians. At other sites, such separations were unthinkable because they talked about work.

[Nepeta]

It is illegal to “donate” work, off the clock Where is that written?

In the law.

[Nepeta]

If you are self-motivated and want to live the American dream, pursue professional; commission-based; or managerial work where you are "exempt" from these ridiculous labor laws - which only serve to keep YOU down.

I made a practice of working wherever and whenever I could, and not telling organizations where they were fouling up in their handling of employees.