…well, not necessarily the policies, but in so many words.
I am so friggin’ frustrated right now! I am sure I’ve said (a bunch of times) that I work in a bar. But I’m still pretty new, and don’t post much, so I’ll reiterate that fact. Anyhow, we have two cash registers; one in the bar and one in the restaurant. So, I ring up the only two checks to come through the back register today, and go figure, I lose the key to the register. This wouldn’t be so bad, had we not lost the only other key to the register a few weeks ago (not me, someone else). I have never been careless with the key. Never! I can’t understand for the life of me how I even let it get out of my sight, let alone how I managed to misplace it.
So, come tomorrow, I have to go in before my shift, and dig through the DUMPSTER to see if maybe I threw it away! It doesn't even matter that it's work-related! I have to be there before my shift, and I will most definitely not be getting paid. They wanted me to look tonight. At 2:30 in the morning. In the dark. In the rain. I told them to kiss my ass.
Why couldn’t they have been smart like other people and kept an extra copy of the key WITH THEM?! I’ll give them that they trust their employees (I work with awesome people), but come on! Everyone makes mistakes!
I’m even more pissed that it pissed me off enough to actually make me post here – I didn’t think the pit was a forum that I would ever have to utilize.
Your employer is forcing you to dig through a dumpster?
Because they’re too stupid to have an extra copy of a key on hand?
There’s no way this is legal. Digging through a dumpster is straight-up dangerous. You could easily get injured on something in there. It’s not just disgusting, it’s a huge violation of workplace safety. Most of my employers have been more focused on avoiding safety issues entirely and encouraging us not to risk so much as a paper cut because of the power of regulatory agencies. Your employers are just asking for a lawsuit if they pull this kind of shit.
I’m not the first person to have to do it, either.
However, I called in early today, after letting the boss cool off some about the missing key. We’re all going to sit down together and watch last night’s surveillance video and see if something triggers my memory and I can retrace my steps. Then… if I still can’t find it, I get to dig in the dumpster.
The legality is basically null. The way they pay us is illegal (under the table, day by day – we have no taxes). I believe that if an employee were to try to bring a suit against them, they would just deny that that person ever worked there – there are no pay stubs to prove it.
There are no taxes withheld – and if you happen to have another job that you can claim taxes through, then no, you don’t have to claim the income, because as I said before, there’s no proof of anyone actually working there.
I would have done that, of course, had I had to go through with it. However, my male co-workers felt incredibly bad for me, and one of them took the dumpster dive instead. I owe him big. I offered to was his clothes as a start…
Yes you do. Your employer is breaking the law, and so are you indirectly by not reporting your income on your taxes. An agent can just have a seat at the bar, watch who is doing work and THEN contact the employer for work and payroll files on those individuals. Once he goes over the employers records and gets names and addresses, the agent could then check the returns on the employees who work(ed) there to see if their returns are in line.
You might be right about the Fed and State withholding being taken out of the other job’s checks, but you are wrong about the Social Security and Medicare, State Disability not being taken out of your paycheck at the bar establishment, or as a matter of fact, your total annual gross income (including your tips).
Ugh - brings back memories of when I accidentally dropped the key to my locker in the cafe bin at the end of my shift. All my personal stuff was in the locker; car keys, house keys, wallet, phone. It was late at night so I don’t think anyone had access to a spare key. So I rolled up my sleeve and searched through cigarette ash, food remains, used teabags etc. to get my key at the bottom of the bin. I could still detect the smell of cigarettes and orange peel on my hands the next day, despite thorough washing. But at least I wasn’t forced to do it.
Well, when she complained about some employer policy and then in turn acts like it’s not a big deal when it comes to income reporting and taxes, then I get the notion of a business flying by the seat of its pants. If you want the employer to be on the up and up, then the same should hold true for the employees it employs…but I will give her the benefit of the doubt that the employer is duping her.
Eh, you’re right…neither the employer nor employee has any legal sense. It’s just a matter of time before they realize what that is.