My girlfriend started to work at this well-known local beauty salon about 2 months ago. The owner has three of these salons, and the business in incorporated. But the things she's been telling me lately are making my eyes pop out. Aren't these following business practices flat out illegal?

1) One of her coworkers couldn't make it one morning for her shift because she had a fever when she woke up. The coworker phoned the owner to let her know about it. There were, however, other workers that came that morning at that location, so it wasn't like the store wasn't going to run if she wasn't there for that day. What does the owner do? She takes away $25 from her coming check, because "she did not come in when she was supposed to".

2) The owner periodically brings all of her employees (about 15 of them) for a 2 hour meeting. She does not pay any of them for that meeting, or for any meeting for that matter. Last week, one of the employees just didn't come to the meeting. What does she do? She takes away $25 from the employee's check. Wouldn't just a serious warning suffice? Another employee wasn't informed about the meeting, because the owner said herself that "I (owner) don't have your (employee) contact number". Jeez, who's fault is that? What does she do? She takes away $25 from her paycheck. So basically, she doesn't pay for meetings, and will take away $25 from your check if you don't come.

Aren't these practices illegal? The reason my girlfriend or any employee doesn't want to confront her about this is because everyone is scared of getting on her bad side and losing their job, and she has no problem or worries on finding other people to hire. What are your thoughts? Talk about taking advantage of the tough economy..

 

Yes, they're illegal.

 

magician, is there anything i can do (a non-employee) for this matter? because i personally wont let the owner get away from this that easily

 

class action lawsuit and squeeze that beach...

 

Welcome to a recession. There are no jobs so employers treat their workers like shit. What are they going to do? Leave? And go where?

 

You can report them to the labor board. I don't know if they'll take a report from a non-employee, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

It couldn't hurt to report it to the local news station. If you're in the Los Angeles area, for example, you could get Joel Grover from NBC after them. I'm sure that other metropolitan areas have similar pit bulls.

 

Exactly. And that is just the beginning. She really does treat her employees like crap. Not only that, if there are no customers or anything else left to clean in the store, the owner will make the employees run errands for her, and not even compensating them for gas. One of the locations where my girlfriend works at is at the mall. I might just send an anonymous letter to the mall management, and see what happens.

 

thanks for the input. Will definitely look into this

 

Bad press is good stuff.

 

Mall Managment won't do crap. Find out the exact laws she's breaking. Send her an anonymous letter stating a lawsuit/charges will be filed if she doesn't change her practices.