The scheming, freeloading couples

[Auto]

That really is illegal? Wow. I'll have to tell a girl I work with. Last Sunday two customers left the u-scans without paying and management made her (who was on self-scan duty at the time) pay for them.

Big time illegal.

Management has right to fire you for not paying closer attention to thieves but they can't have you make-up dollar amount of losses. You think bank tellers who give money to robbers holding a gun get it taken out of their pay?

Every state as a department of labor. Many states allow you to complain online and will investigate without revealing your identity.

By all means, complain.

Let us know what happens.

[Auto]

Many establishments I have worked in have made servers pay for walk-outs, but usually only if that server has had a history of such.

That being said, some people in here have said that the establishment making the server pay for walk-outs is illegal. I was wondering if anyone could find the actual laws/statutes/whatever for this, to determine if this is, in fact, illegal.

I am especially interested in the laws governing this in Florida (where I currently work) and Arizona (where I will be returning soon enough).

Thank you.

And yes, you have just read a totally serious post with no smart ass comments or jokes by Jester. Don't worry...it is unlikely to occur again any time soon.

start by googling florida/arizona department of labor.

[Lehk]

You think bank tellers who give money to robbers holding a gun get it taken out of their pay?

AFAIK Banks always train tellers to comply with robbers. it's much better to lose some cash than to have people hurt or killed.

[Jpurple]

And yes, you have just read a totally serious post with no smart ass comments or jokes by Jester. Don't worry...it is unlikely to occur again any time soon.

Well, I hope it won't occur again soon! Isn't that one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

[Auto]

AFAIK Banks always train tellers to comply with robbers. it's much better to lose some cash than to have people hurt or killed.

That's my point.

They're not paying me enough to confront someone who might be a shoplifter. There's store security for that. If someone has a gun, I'm giving him the contents of my till.

Store's got insurance for such losses.

As for shoplifters, they're management's problem.

[protege]

AFAIK Banks always train tellers to comply with robbers. it's much better to lose some cash than to have people hurt or killed.

Since I worked in a bank, our tellers were told to give the robbers what they wanted. It wasn't worth anyone getting killed over. However, the tellers were also told to slip a dye pack into the cash. These things are designed to explode once they go outside the bank's doors...making the money worthless, and sometimes even marking the robbers as well!

[South Texan]

At the first place I waited tables, the restaurant had a dining area with a large, raised bar in its middle with a large shelf/mirror/sink island in its middle. This meant that if we went over to the bar to place drink orders, we would lose sight of our tables most of the time.

A favorite scam of dine-n-dashers was to order a last round of drinks after the meal was over. The moment the waiter walked over to the bar area, the table would bolt. I got stung by this twice before I got wise. From then on, if a new round was ordered, I would write out the order then walk off. It always was fun to see the completely stunned faces of my customers when they saw me standing by the front door with their bill as they walked hastily into the hostess vestibule.

Of course the whole lot usually would feign ignorance of the unpaid bill and state that everyone thought someone else had taken care of it. When I smiled empathetically and told them that I understood what must have happened and asked if they wanted to go back to their table to enjoy that last round of drinks they had just ordered but instantly forgotten while we waited for the police to arrive, they invariably asked me how much the bill was and then paid immediately without actually checking the true amount. The extra forty or so percent I tacked on to cover the last round of drinks rarely was discovered or challenged.

Sometimes I still got a tip on top of that!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Since I worked in a bank, our tellers were told to give the robbers what they wanted. It wasn't worth anyone getting killed over. However, the tellers were also told to slip a dye pack into the cash. These things are designed to explode once they go outside the bank's doors...making the money worthless, and sometimes even marking the robbers as well!

Heehee . . . I wish we had those exploding dye packs at the Kitty.

Our policy there is pretty much cut and dry. This is pretty much what's posted in the breakroom area:

1) Cooperate w/the robber's request. Don't resist in any way

2) Make mental notes of what the robber looks like (height/weight/hair color/eye color/clothing/tattoos or scars/type of weapon used/vehicle description if available/yadda yadda)

3) As soon as the robber leaves the premises, call 911 to get police assistant ASAP, also EMS if anyone is hurt

4) Call the DM to inform him/her of the robbery

5) Call loss prevention at home office (same reason as #4)

There's also a nifty device called a silent alarm necklace. It's a long chain that managers and office people wear that has a small pendant w/a button on it. Press the button and a silent alarm goes off that alerts home office, which in turn calls 911.

WD didn't have the silent alarms that I can recall, however their policy on robberies was the same as what the Kitty has in place.

While I hadn't been present at any robberies (thank Goodness) there had been a couple of holdups at the Cone store before I started working there. At that time, they were open 24 hours and on both occasions, it was the same cashier working when the robberies took place.

The cashier quit not long after the second one and battled PTSD for a time (I later heard that she killed herself a few months later.) WD revised their hours and not long after I was transferred there, the hours were changed and the store began closing at 11 p.m.

[Auto]

That really is illegal? Wow. I'll have to tell a girl I work with. Last Sunday two customers left the u-scans without paying and management made her (who was on self-scan duty at the time) pay for them.

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days and something doesn't seem right.

If your store is big enough to have a u-scan, it's probably part of a supermarket chain. And big chains don't screw around with scams like making employees pay for theft by customers. It's so wildly illegal that if one employee complains to the authorities, they're going to ask every employee if they were ever forced to pay. If so, then the chain is looking at some serius fines and the stores managers will lose their jobs.

Even Wal-mart seems to be getting its act together and no longer intimidating employees into working off the clock.

[Kogarashi]

Even Wal-mart seems to be getting its act together and no longer intimidating employees into working off the clock.

I'd certainly hope so. We've got at least two CBLs (Computer Based Learning modules) and several signs telling us not to work off the clock no matter who asks us to.

But you're right, the store could get in serious trouble for making an employee pay for a U-scan runoff.

[Crosshair]

AFAIK Banks always train tellers to comply with robbers. it's much better to lose some cash than to have people hurt or killed.

Even if you do everything they say that is no guarantee they arn't going to kill you anyway. Especialy for CS clerks.

[Sir Spaniard the 12th]

They huffed and puffed, saying that this was an outrage and they were never coming back. But sadly, they didn't keep their promise. XD

For something like that, I'd, personally, blacklist them if I was the manager.

[alphaboi]

That really is illegal? Wow. I'll have to tell a girl I work with. Last Sunday two customers left the u-scans without paying and management made her (who was on self-scan duty at the time) pay for them.

I also used to work U-scan duty at a supermarket in PA. Managment considered docking us for run-offs. I politely told the SM that I was fine with it as long as; I no longer had to leave the paystation to help customers use them, bag for customers, could stop every customer who tried to leave for their reciept, and could use force to detain anyone who refused. He changed his mind real fast after that.

[Lace Neil Singer]

For something like that, I'd, personally, blacklist them if I was the manager.

I think the boss put a note in their computer file that if they tried it again to blacklist them... but no-one ever got done the first time, unless it was something like that joke where people call and then aren't in; this scam at least didn't cost us money.

[starglitter]

I've been thinking about this for a couple of days and something doesn't seem right.

If your store is big enough to have a u-scan, it's probably part of a supermarket chain. And big chains don't screw around with scams like making employees pay for theft by customers. It's so wildly illegal that if one employee complains to the authorities, they're going to ask every employee if they were ever forced to pay. If so, then the chain is looking at some serius fines and the stores managers will lose their jobs.

Even Wal-mart seems to be getting its act together and no longer intimidating employees into working off the clock.

It is a pretty big chain...

As far as I know, in the time that I've been working there (over two years) this girl was the only they ever made pay. And I believe they did so because she continuously let's people walk off without paying. Store manager after store manager where I work prefer the 'make them quit' method rather than firing people...which is mostly while I'm reluctant to get involved with any of this.