N.J. gas attendants were underpaid, federal probe shows

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CBS News

ByKATE GIBSON

More than 1,100 gasoline station attendants in New Jersey have received $5.5 million in back wages and damages after a multiyear probe by the U.S. Department of Labor found the workers had not been paid the minimum wage and in some cases, overtime pay, the federal agency said Thursday.

"Our investigations of the New Jersey gas station industry found widespread violating of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage, overtime and record-keeping provisions," Mark Watson, regional administrator of the Wage and Hour Division in the Northeast, said in a statement.

Employees covered by the act must be paid no less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, with non-agricultural and other non-exempt workers entitled to time-and-a-half of their regular rates for every hour they work above 40 hours a week.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nj-gas-attendants-were-underpaid-federal-probe-shows/

[cstanleytech]

1. 5.5 million award? Yup I am sure that will teach the companies a lesson all right

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Am thinking this is against the individual station (franchise) owners

versus the oil companies that supply them.

It's similar when they go after the individual owners when they tried to gouge on prices after major storms, etc.

[cstanleytech]

6. And it still lacks teeth, teeth that make employers to think really long and hard before

they decide to do this BS and think long and hard about the potential and severe consequences.

[BumRushDaShow]

11. The "award" is mostly back-payments to employees

plus penalties based on the 1938 FLSA (with its many amendments). The penalties are spelled out in the USC.

Congress would need to update the law (fat chance) to get any more than that.

[cstanleytech]

13. Yes I know that and thats my point, the law currently is way to lenient on companies

for their bad actions and they will continue to flaunt their ability to break the law until its changed such that the penalties companies face include among them the option (for truly outrageous crimes) of taking all the gross profit a company made during the time it committed the crime.

[BumRushDaShow]

16. Agree but

I expect even with business-closing fines, it would be like a wack-a-mole operation where they would pop up again as someone else (independent gasoline retailer). The gas station industry there is a racket and has been for a long time. When you have a state where the old Joe Piscopo routine about finding someone who lives in New Jersey by asking "What exit?" resonates to us locals, then you know the state abounds in gas stations...

(wow, miss Joe Piscopo)

[christx30]

8. Agreed.

The occasional million dollar payout is pretty much the cost of doing business. It's meaningless to their bottom line. Like if I got fined $12.

[elleng]

2. This in the State that forces gas station attendants to pump gas,

and doesn't allow customers to do so.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Underpaying is how they keep their per gal prices cheaper

Come across the bridges here to Philly and it's like day and night (although it seems the price differential often comes out to the cost of the toll).

[Gormy Cuss]

5. Unlike the 48 states that force customers to pump their own gas.

eta: NJ has relatively low pump prices because of low gas taxes and because it has refineries which lowers the transport cost.

[FLPanhandle]

9. Forced to pump their own gas?

I prefer to pump it myself.

I hate when I have to travel in NJ and have an attendant.

[Gormy Cuss]

10. It was hyperbole in response to same.

I'm sorry, but I can't imagine why anyone gives a hoot that rather than getting out of the car and minding the pump one's self, an attendant does it, but people have their preferences.

I'm old enough to remember that self-serve was marketed as a way to save money at the pump, yet every time I visit family in NJ I notice that the prices in the surrounding states are the same or higher. Go figure.

[BumRushDaShow]

12. The "justification" was

that it "created jobs", where elsewhere, stations may have 1 or 2 employees max, manning the register and pump controllers (not counting any stations that might also have a garage and mechanics and/or a mini convenience store).

[father founding]

18. Yeah I Know !

What the hell is that all about ?

[VScott]

7. It kind of works both ways.

The only reason many of them even have a job is that NJ is one of the few states (maybe the only one),
that prohibits self serve at the pumps.
I can (should be able to), pump my own gas if I want to... thank you.

Eliminate that requirement, adjust employinng attendants accordingly, pay them the legal wage, end of problem.

[damyank913]

14. When they would clean the windshields and check the fluids it was worth the tip you gave.

Now all they do is pump. Jersey has got the cheapest gas in the tri-state area but NOT if you tip.

[Sunlei]

15. 5.5 million / 1100 = $5000 each. 'Over several years'? there has to be thousands of past employees

left out of this settlement?

[Omaha Steve]

19. I'm sure there are many employees that didn't like the work or hours

And quit soon after being hired.