Former McDonald’s Store Managers Say They Withheld Wages

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-01/former-mcdonald-s-store-managers-say-they-withheld-wages.html


Two former McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) store managers, assisting with a campaign to raise pay for fast-food workers, said they helped withhold employees’ wages at the restaurant chain after facing pressure to keep labor costs down.

The ex-managers, who came forward as part of an effort backed by worker advocacy group Fast Food Forward, said they engaged in tactics such as asking employees to continue working after they clocked out or adding unpaid breaks to time sheets. They took the steps to avoid exceeding a store’s strict goals for wage expenses, said Lakia Williams, a former assistant manager at a McDonald’s in Charleston, South Carolina.

“There was so much pressure,” she said in an interview. “It’s not only the franchisees group and the general managers, it is corporate. It’s something internal, it’s something deeper, and it’s something that has been going on for years.”

Williams said she would ask employees to work for an hour or two after they clocked out. She needed them to help clean up after a busy day and would usually give them $20 of her own money to compensate, Williams said. Kwanza Brooks, a manager who worked at McDonald’s stores in North Carolina and Maryland, said she amended time sheets to keep labor costs down.

[mercuryblues]

1. but, but

The teabaggers AKA republicans say that poor people are that way because they are lazy and don't want to work. Not because they are taken advantage of.

[tblue37]

2. What keeps poor people from becoming rich is not that the "lack a culture of work" in

their environment, but that they lack a culture of ruthless exploitation and theft, which is how most really rich people got so rich.

[Heywood J]

3. You know what they say lies behind great fortunes... (NT)

[tblue37]

4. Yep--great crimes. nt

[JesterCS]

5. I worked at McDonalds from '96 to '99

That was ALWAYS the managers words " Labor, we have to keep labor down " usually people would get sent home early.

I never double checked my hours, I probably should have. Definitely that was the ONLY thing on managers minds. Labor costs.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Shaving time sheets is common throughout the service industry.

They have as few people as possible working a shift, so they work the hell out of you while you're there, and then they shave your time. It's evil, and there ought to be fines out the wazoo and big settlements to workers for getting caught doing that shit. Good luck getting that to happen, though, in our current 'pro-business' (anti-worker) climate. I think the times are a changing, however, at least I fervently hope so.

[davidpdx]

7. It happened to Taco Bell back in the 90s

The reason I know is because I dated someone who had worked there in the past and received a notice about a settlement. I helped her figure out how many hours she'd been scammed out of and then added more on top of that. She got a check for the hours, then got another check for the interest lost from the pay.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. Good for her! That should happen a lot more.