My daughter recently took on a part time job at Sonic, hoping to work around her school hours this fall. Her work hours have been so odd I have to ask if this is common or even legal.
For example, she’ll be scheduled to work 11 am to 5 pm. She’ll get a 35 minute break after the first two hours, and then she’ll work another thirty minutes or so and they’ll tell her to go home. Or they will tell her to clock back out and sit in the parking lot just in case business picks up. She sat there for over an hour before they finally told her to go home one day.
Or she’ll be scheduled 3 to 12 (closing time). She’ll work until six (with the same 35 minute break) and they’ll tell her to clock out but stay in the lot in case they get busy. It’s insane to me that she has to sit there without being paid in hope that they’ll need her to clock back in. This job is on the other side of town and so far she’s barely getting paid for gas. The only reason she’s staying on is because they’ve told her they’ll work with her school hours. But it just doesn’t seem right to me. Definitely not worth minimum wage!
Also one day they had someone from the corporate office come in for an inspection. They called ten minutes in advance and over half the staff had to clock out and wait in the parking lot the entire two hours. They were sent out if their uniform or hair wasn’t proper, or if they had nail polish, or if they were new. As soon as the inspector left they had to clock back in and get to work.
Is this normal for fast food? I worked at a few in my youth and don’t remember anything like this.
When my kids worked fast food, it wasn’t unusual for them to get “cut” and sent home early if business were slow. But I have never heard of asking employees to sit in the parking lot and wait! That part doesn’t pass the smell test, to me.
Either they are working and on the clock, or they’re not working and they are free to leave. It can’t be both. If they demand that she stay they must keep her on the clock, IMO.
I agree–a certain amount of being sent home early, or being called to ask if one can come in when one wasn’t scheduled isn’t fun, but isn’t out of the norm for fast food–or food service in general, or even retail in general.
But the amount of “clock out but stick around in case we need you” described seems extreme. I’m not sure I’d assume it was illegal, but I probably wouldn’t put up with it unless I was a lot needier than I presently am.
I agree with NinetyWt. You can call your state’s Dept. of Labor and ask them about this, but I think that I would just handle it myself next time it happens. They say I have to clock out and wait in the parking lot, I tell them that they can either pay me to stay, or I’m leaving. And if they don’t like that, walk. You say she’s barely covering gas, so she’s not losing a whole lot by doing that. It’ll give her more time to look for a better job, too. They’re not the only PT job that works around college students’ schedules.
I might report them to the Dept. of Labor just to make sure they don’t do that to anyone else, but I can’t see it being worth it to stick around for the mess if/when they bring the hammer down. It’s illegal for management to retaliate, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try.
If it’s not illegal, it should be. She’s on company property waiting for her boss to assign her a task, that sounds like “on the clock” to me.
I too wonder what your state employment laws are. It’s my understanding that in MA, if they ask you to come in, they have to pay you for three hours whether you work those hours or not.
It sounds like lousy franchise management, to me, especially the part about telling people to leave so they could pass inspection by the corporate muckety-mucks. Uh, if you can’t legitimately pass an inspection, you’re doing it wrong, people.
You could also report this to the corporate office. They might have something to say about it.
Whether or not any of this is illegal your daughter needs to find a new job. Being “on call” is okay if you are paid well for it but if they aren’t compensating you for it that is a pretty shitty place to work. I actually quit a job in high school over that. They kept scheduling me to be on call so I couldn’t go out on a date or to a movie or anything but I wasn’t getting paid either, so since I wasn’t getting paid for my work hours I went ahead and quit so I could at least enjoy my down time.
Wow, that almost sounds like they’re lying to the corporate office–wouldn’t they want to see how the staff looks on any given basis?
I really hope your daughter can find another place to work, because their practices sound ridiculous. Are there any grocery stores or restaurants nearby where she can apply?
Back when I was a teen working at McD’s, this was a pretty common practice. Of course, they can’t force you to sit around, not getting paid. It was more of a request. A request I usually denied. Of course, for a new employee on her first job, she could be a lot more worried about denying such a request.
And this wasn’t just a fast food thing. It was practice at a lot of grocery/retail places too. Not quite as common, because they were usually better at scheduling. McD’s (and probably most other fast food places) has an automated scheduling program, based on trends on previous history of business. When demand doesn’t quite meet what was expected, it’s time to send people home. I remember once I worked for a whole hour before going home. (and this was back when money didn’t really matter, and I preferred to go home.)
That’s exactly what they are doing. And it’s a pretty widespread practice, especially at franchise locations.
I’ve worked some pretty crappy minimum wage jobs in my youth, but never once was I told to hang out and wait for hours. Either I was scheduled or I was off.
something smells funny about this story…How can an official inspector from the corporate office NOT notice that half the staff , still in uniform, is waiting in the parking lot for two hours straight?
Call your state’s Dept. of Labor, that is what they are there for. The government regulates who many breaks you are supposed to get, how may hours you work before overtime kicks in and so much more. It’s not like employers haven’t tried clever ways to get around what they are supposed to be doing - the Deparment of Labor should have seen them all by now and should be able to tell if it is legal. In any case, the Sonic management is saving a lot of money at the expense of their employees. You would be doing everyone a favor by bringing it to the attention of the state.
I would suggest, just for fun, your daughter learn her first lesson about collective bargaining. She should have a chat with the other employees out in the parking lot and the next time the manager calls them back to work they should collectively ask, “what will you give us to come back inside?”
I would walk. I worked food service for several years. I was never told to sit in the parking lot off the clock in case business would pick up. That looks to me like a shitty GM taking advantage of high school students.
It’s normal among people who can’t or won’t stand up for themselves.
The sitting in the parking lot unpaid BS would see me walking out the door never to return. Plus a call to the state’s labor agency as well as corporate.
I used to work retail and they used to put people as “call-ins” on the schedule. As in, people have to call in to the store before their shift would start and see if they are working that day. This makes it very hard to schedule anything during that time because you may or may not be working then.
My girlfriend works retail and puts up with this situation.
I, on the other hand, told my boss I wasn’t going to put up with it. I kept my job and had a normal schedule from then on.
I used to work in H/R in Illinois and Maryland, so I know about those states.
There is no minimum amount they have to pay you for. Most companies have company policies where they pay you for one or two hours. I work temp jobs now and it happens a lot. I get sent over to a temp job for eight hours and work an hour or even less then they tell me to go home.
They can ASK you stay around in case it gets busy but they cannot require you to. Anytime a company REQUIRES you do something then they must compensate you for it in pay, not comp time, but pay.
Of course the thing is with fast food and other jobs, schedules are built around those willing to cooperate. If you are not willing to stick around till it gets busy again, you may find yourself, next week working only 10 hours instead of 20 hours.
Basically how employment laws work is unless there is a union agreement or unless there is a law saying you CANNOT do something, you CAN do it.
For example in Illinois there is no law prohibiting employers from requiring their staff to wear beepers or to have cell phones so they can be gotten a hole of 24/7. Since there is no law saying they cannot do this, they can do this.
The best way to handle this is go to your state’s Dept of Labor website. They will have a section called “Wages and Hours.” This is who to contact. They are very good at answering specific questions.
The thing is there is a lot of unemployment so employers can do pretty much whatever they want, as someone will take the job or be forced to.
The part where they send her home earlier than she was scheduled for is pretty normal, it just means it’s a shitty job. Shitty jobs usually either give you way too few or way too many hours.
The part where they ask her to sit in the parking lot off the clock while they decide if they need her to work any more is insane. I imagine they only try that nonsense on their younger, more pliable employees. Tell your daughter to tell them she’s not going to stay on the restaurant if she’s not on the clock. There’s a chance that they’ll cut her hours back even more in favor of stupider, more pliable employees willing to work for free, but it’s a shitty job anyway so no big loss.
She says the inspector DID see them, but they weren’t on the clock. I think it’s very fishy myself but I know she’s not lying or anything because she called me several times while they were out there. She got the job with her cousin and she says it’s been like this a lot lately. She’s full-time though so she doesn’t suffer the crazy hours so much.
I know she needs another job and this was only an emergency job since her last job ended. It’s only been three weeks, but every single day she’s worked they’ve done this to her. We’re looking steadily for something better.