Waffle House Is Taking Heat For An 'Especially Alarming' Paycheck Policy ( www.huffpost.com )

A union that’s organizing Waffle Houseworkers filed a petition with the Labor Department on Monday, asking federal officials to investigate the iconic chain’s policy of deducting mandatory meal costs from workers’ paychecks.

Waffle House takes at least $3 for each on-shift meal out of workers’ pay, whether they end up eating it or not, according to the petition from the Union of Southern Service Workers. The USSW called it “especially alarming” since many workers are paid a tipped sub-minimum wage “as low as $2.90 per hour,” not including gratuities.

potentiallynotfelix ,
@potentiallynotfelix@iusearchlinux.fyi avatar

Better not shut down then I’ll have to watch mma 😫

Finalsolo963 ,

Waffle house done been exploiting their employees

TheTimeKnife ,
@TheTimeKnife@lemmy.world avatar

Wage theft enforcement is so desperately needed in the US.

RizzRustbolt ,

And this might just be the place to kick it into action.

watty ,

I found this a bit confusing, but I think the core of this is really that Waffle House staff don’t get a choice on whether or not they buy a meal during their shift. Is that right?

I kind of got that gist from the article, but nothing super clear. It said that employees pay for the meal whether they eat it or not, which if you ordered food and didn’t eat it, that’s kinda on you. I think it should be saying that they are charged for the meal whether they ordered it or not, if that’s what is happening.

scoobford ,

Basically, yes. They’re forcing you to purchase food, whether you want it, intend to consume it, or get to consume it.

And FWIW in the restaurant industry meal breaks are usually not a thing, so it is very common to order food and just have to scarf it down whenever you’re not using your hands or in front of guests. I used to unwrap, consume, and dispose of the packaging for a sandwich in the time it took me to walk from the door to dry storage.

Edit: also IIRC wage deductions are usually illegal unless for uniforms or ordered by a court. This is probably an easy case.

ArmoredThirteen ,

If you’re not eating hour old food above a trash can after mistiming making a meal what even are you doing (I don’t cook professionally, was married to a chef/baker and got to hear all about the nonsense)

iAmTheTot ,
@iAmTheTot@kbin.social avatar

Wage theft in the United States exceeds all theft, burglary, larceny, etc values put together.

Ashyr ,

Approximately 60-80% of all theft is wage theft. So it’s 3-4x as common as any other kind of theft.

xmunk ,

It’s important to keep this in mind whenever retailers decry shoplifters as a source of price increases - the retailers steal more from their employees paychecks than what is stolen from them (and most shrinkage isn’t due to theft anyways).

It’s also important to keep this in mind whenever asshats like Bezos or Musk talk about eliminating the NLRB.

KingJalopy ,

What shoplifters? I’ve never seen anyone steal anything. And neither have any of you…

sxan ,
@sxan@midwest.social avatar

Dude, I will literally run interference.

some_guy ,

Depends on the theft. I won’t rat out someone stealing food or baby formula. But I would for sure rat out those group-assaults on premium brands. They smash and break shit unnecessarily and leave chaos for the workers when they’re gone.

someguy3 ,

Highly illegal, should be an easy win.

xmunk ,

You’d think so… but our two tier justice system just let Trump cut his bail requirement in a third because “it so hawwwd”. Never underestimate how stuffed with corporate toadies our justice system is.

someguy3 ,

There’s a right wing seminar of economics that they invite and “educate” supreme Court justices on how economics works. Well their ideology of economics anyway. Don’t recall if it was a one time thing back then or ongoing but holy cow.

xmunk ,

You don’t even need something so explicit - justices regularly rub elbows with billionaires and are pretty clearly influenced by the association.

We need something like Discworld’s unseen university where they can just be academics locked away from public discourse and celebrity - being a Supreme Court Justice should be an obscure dead-end of a job that only appeals to the legally obsessed.

Potatos_are_not_friends ,

Anyone not familiar with this, NPR Planet Money has a great podcast about this.

www.npr.org/transcripts/1124477182

Tldr: right wing economists teach judges why trickle down economics is good and poor people are stupid.

someguy3 , (edited )

Yup that’s where I learned about this. Thanks for the link.

beetus ,

Btw he still has to play the full amount. Just reduced payment needed now. It’s still shitty, but he ain’t off the hook.

xmunk ,

So we assume but this fuck keeps dodging actual consequences.

Texas_Hangover ,

Hey now, if I want to RRRREEEEEEE about trump, in a thread about waffle house…🙄 I should be able to. Let me enjoy my righteous indignation ffs.

PunnyName ,

We need a critical mass boycott that has actual change. Lots are prepping to boycott all Kellogg’s products starting April 1 (giving time to prep, but not bulk buy) for 3 months.

Hopefully this kinda shit actually starts to make a real dent. Causing actual crash, or actual positive change.

ghostrider2112 ,

Every person that votes against companies with their wallets makes a dent. I think the economy is helping by making more people HAVE to start making some tough spending decisions. Companies are pretty stupid to not be considering that as they continue to try to fuck people over more each day.

SkyezOpen ,

I’m not entirely convinced. The bud light bullshit was MASSIVE and their stock only took a tiny hit, and that was a right wing thing which means the participation percentage was massive.

Corkyskog ,

How was the bud light thing massive? People were buying Bud just to pour it out and then just buying other products in Inbev’s portfolio. People don’t understand that 85% of the beer in most liquor stores is a split between Coors and Inbev portfolios.

SkyezOpen ,

Well I haven’t heard about the Kelloggs thing. Everyone heard about the bud light thing. For months.

ghostrider2112 ,

I’ve found most people are more talk than action. I am almost to the point of having to create my own supply chain as my boycott list continues to grow over the years lol

SkyezOpen ,

Ethical consumption is basically impossible, you gotta draw what lines you can.

Though I do need to refresh my memory of what nestle owns, because fuck them in particular.

ghostrider2112 ,

Yes, it is virtually impossible in the U.S. anyways. I’m mostly joking, but I do have a very long list. lol

Good reminder for me too, thanks! I haven’t memorized the full list yet en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nestlé_brands

SkyezOpen ,

Fuck me they own Purina, which is fantastic pet food. And stouffer’s, which is terrible but delicious and fast human food.

Welp, I’ll forego the frozens but my cats are more important than my morals.

ghostrider2112 ,

I agree on Stouffer’s, but I knew about that one as I live in the same region as the original US factory for them. However, I stick with whatever knock-off brand looks best these days. Yes, being intimately familiar with the finickiness of cats, that is the only option.

verdantbanana ,
@verdantbanana@lemmy.world avatar

and all the patrons ordering to go pay extra for all the bags and food containers plus an added tip for bagging the order

ghostrider2112 ,

That’s pretty fucked up. I would add them to the list of companies that I will no longer patronize, but they there were already there for being gross in other ways.

cdf12345 ,

What other examples? I’m not up to date on waffle drama, besides crazy fights and general craziness at 3 am

ghostrider2112 ,

oh, just shitty food and dirty facilities from past experience many years ago. lol.

Throw_away_migrator ,

That’s Waffle House. You just described every Waffle House.

ghostrider2112 ,

Exactly. So, the fact that they are even in the position to be still making waffles and blatantly stealing from their employees is beyond me. lol

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