Obama's DOJ: OK to Screw Hourly Workers

    The Obama DOJ has filed a Supreme Court Amicus Brief asking it to reverse a Ninth District Court of Appeals ruling. The Appeals Court said Amazon warehouse employees forced to wait 25 minutes or more before exiting their work site, in long lines to see if they stole anything, is time for which they should be compensated for by Amazon.  The Obama DOJ disagrees.

    The DOJ argument is hourly workers need not be paid for time spent doing tasks mandated by the corporation if that time is (DOJ Amicus Brief page 10):

    NOT INTEGRAL AND INDISPENSABLE TO THE WORK PERFORMED BY ITS WAREHOUSE EMPLOYEES AND WERE THEREFORE NONCOMPENSABLE

    The 9th ruled that although the time spent going through security lines was not "indispensable to the work" of the employee, it was done solely at the requirement and for the benefit of the employer, Amazon and should be compensated time.

    It is fairly clear to me that once an hourly employee clocks off work they should walk out the door with no further demands on their time by the employer.

    The Obama administration, "defender of the low wage worker" disagrees. Perhaps because billions of Wall Street dollars would be going to Main Street in the form of back pay to low wage workers..... Senator Elizabeth Warren is right, The game is rigged.

    Huffington Post:

    The brief has put the White House in an unusual position in the Busk case -- it is standing alongside the Chamber of Commerce and the retail lobby and against the AFL-CIO labor federation.

    The White House declined to comment on the brief. According to Schnapper, the impact of the Supreme Court case could go well beyond Amazon's distribution workforce. Depending on how broad the ruling is, a decision against Busk could essentially lead to more off-the-clock work, he said....

    "You could be told at the end of your shift....to go close the windows and take out the trash," he said. "There are lots of things they could have you do and save money by doing that … It would mean pay cuts for a lot of people."

    As you might suspect, the Supreme Court is leaning towards protecting corporations profits at the expense of workers.

    Since the Obama administration must know the Supreme Court will surely rule against the hourly workers, maybe someone can postulate why the piling on to reverse the 9th Circuit ruling?

    SOP, Standard Operating Procedure, support Wall Street, they have the big campaign money?

    Revolving door pandering, on hopes of getting higher pay later on Wall Street??

    The signers of the BRIEF FOR THE UNITED STATES AS AMICUS CURIAE SUPPORTING PETITIONER:

    M. PATRICIA SMITH
    Solicitor of Labor
    JENNIFER S. BRAND
    Associate Solicitor
    PAUL L. FRIEDEN
    Counsel for Appellate
    Litigation
    DIANE A. HEIM
    Senior Attorney
    Department of Labor
    DONALD B. VERRILLI, JR.
    Solicitor General
    EDWIN S. KNEEDLER
    Deputy Solicitor General
    CURTIS E. GANNON
    Assistant to the Solicitor
    General

    Comments

    This is outrageous!  Just in case the administration guys are wondering...this isn't going to make Mitch McConnell or Ted Cruz like them any better. 


    The 3-dimensional chess explanation, don't know whether I believe this:

    1. Bezos has lots of money, as do a lot of big corporations. It's election season.

    2. The Supremes are going to reverse the liberal 9th Circuit, and rule for Amazon. It's a slam dunk for sure.

    3. If the administration supports the 9th circuit ruling it will be like pissing into the wind, make it more likely the workers will lose in the Republican 'corporations are people' SCOTUS.

    4. Most Democrat voters don't know or pay attention to this stuff, even most Amazon hourly workers likely haven't heard of this, if they have they surely won't know about the administrations amicus brief. The AFL-CIO has no where else to go anyway but the Democrats.

    5. The case loses, Bezos is happy, as are other deep pockets, the Democrats can say they helped the corporate bottom line.....ergo....give us campaign money, the hourly workers are screwed, and the blame falls on the SCOTUS, Democrats say vote for us or the SCOTUS will get even worse.


    Right on the money.


    Let's see what Bruce Levine thinks.


     I know where you are coming from NCD, but I don't believe the employees will win and not because of greedy employers, but instead; because of some greedy employees, who ruin it for all others coworkers and customers alike. 

    It would mean pay cuts for a lot of people."

    When the purchasing power of your wages goes down, because of fraud and theft

    It is a pay cut

    Were these employees notified before hire and yet they applied and agreed to employment? 

    Employee Theft: Are You Blind to It? - CBS News

    The cost of employee theft - Work It, Cville: News

    Fraud Employee Theft Statistics Internal Controls Fraud Risk ...

    If the employees, have something better to do; they should quit and find other employment. 


    Lame response. "It would mean pay cuts for a lot of people" was from a labor expert who noted that honest hard working hourly employees could legally be given more tasks after they have clocked out with this ruling. That is a pay cut. If employee theft is a problem hire more security or use more video security measures. This ruling punishes all for the fault of few or none.

    If you believe in group punishment for 'crimes', real or statistical, you must miss Josef Stalin. Call it "sabotage and wrecking", stop it for good, send the entire shift to the Kolyma. Then you get them to rat on each other and you can fire the security guards.

    As a small business owner I'd be better off if Amazon hired more security people who might become my customers, also shortening the exit lines for clocked out employees, time they could use to spend their money at a local business.

    Amazon is screwing Main Street workers to line deep pockets on Wall Street.

     


    Sure, under your idea,  the company could make all the workers pay for more security.

    You think the company has that much of a margin and that they wouldn't look to cover the expenses incurred to cover the losses created by the dishonest employees, 

    Hiring more workers or security enhancements reduces the share of the pie each worker bargains to receive from company profits. 

    Without profit you can't sustain hiring labor. 

    group punishment for 'crimes'

    Evidently this escapes your mind?  The group punishment would be instituted, by asking all the workers, honest and dishonest to take a cut in wages or benefits, in future negotiations. 

    You have no problem making the honest pay, for the sins of the dishonest?

    You think asking workers to take out the trash is onerous? 

    If I was a small entrepreneur and was looking for possible candidates for hire, I would question such an attitude. Next the employee might tell me, they don't do windows either?

    Employer to possible hire: "If you have something better to do, you better go do it". "Don't let me stop you"  

    Such is the present commodity of labor.

    Another example of the affects of NAFTA and the decimation of American labor and its effect on our political system.


    Guess who holds the paper of our indebtedness and our promissory notes to pay?

     Could it be Corporations, who will do more than Amazon is?

    Not only will they make you wait to leave the job, they could make the worker stand outside for awhile, before letting you clock in.  If you don't like it, there are so many looking for work, who'll be glad to take your job. 

    (That could be Amazons solution to staggering shifts) 

    Maybe they wont need you today, come back tomorrow and maybe? 

    Controlling employment and unemployment; controlling the commodity of labor, as any other commodity.  

    Just wait and you'll see the pain that is coming upon the working class, when the creditors want their 17 trillion dollars in debts paid and watch how Corporations and their industries enslaves us all.

    Group punishment;

    Because the foolish voters and politicians sold us all, into slavery......With their spending and revenue restricting policies like NAFTA

    We are not going to be drowned in the bathtub; we're being drowned in the Red sea of Ink


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