"Rapid Transit" sandwich employees: does this sound familiar?

[wolfie]

I've read a number of threads here dealing with companies illegally shorting wages. Consumerist has a report about a sandwich chain being the top offender in the fast-food category, despite having far fewer outlets than many burger chains.

[TheSHAD0W]

This particular chain is known for having one of the loosest franchise policies out there, which has its benefits and drawbacks. This is one of the drawbacks.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I worked at one for 2.5 months. That was all I could take, I have never been treated so poorly by management anywhere, and I have never had to work under conditions where I had to treat customers so poorly. I have also never eaten at one since, because I know how the food is treated, and I haven't said that about any other fast food, bar or restaurant I have worked at. Even mcdonalds, the food may be gross tasting and bad for you, but at least it follows basic food safety handling rules. I am not surprised in the slightest.

(I may still be bitter about working there, why do you ask?)

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I used to work at one. My immediate manager was awesome but the franchisee was a real piece of work.

He had this massive checklist of things that HAD to be done before we left every night but he also REQUIRED that we be clocked out by no later than 10:20 (place closed at 10).

Perhaps you can see the problem there.

I had a coworker work off the clock (as in, clock out at 10:20 and keep working to finish the checklist) multiple times because she feared losing her job. She even asked me to help her once and I politely told her no, I won't work off the clock and I also strongly suggested she shouldn't either.

One night she had to stay until 10:45.

In retrospect, I should have probably filed a complaint with the labor board on that one.

[fireheart]

I wonder if it is a US-only thing or not. Over here, the rapid transit sandwich folks seem to be staying in their jobs a little bit longer. Then again, they're also bound to a state and/or federal award and their employees are unionised.

In fact, the local one has had their employees there for a few YEARS now. So either they've got balls of diamond or they're getting treated OK.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I'm in Canada and I think that patiokitty is also. If the ones in (UK? Australia? Sorry don't remember where you are from) are unionized there is absolutely no way that they could be as bad as what the one I worked at was like, even the worst union would be better. Just some of the illegal and/or immoral labour/food safety practises they worked:

- We only got paid until 15 minutes after close, no matter how long we stayed. We had to stay until all the cleaning and chores were done. Average 1/2 hour per shift was not paid to me
- We didn't get paid for 'breaks'. We had to take 1 hour of breaks/shift. We weren't allowed to take breaks on break.
- We weren't allowed to throw out product, even if it was obviously moldy
- We weren't allowed to sell less then $400 worth of products/closing shift
- We weren't allowed to date products in the fridge or bane (bain?), because then we would have to throw it out after so many days, which we couldn't do. We only dated them when someone from corporate was coming for a 'surprise' inspection
- We had to follow list of cleaning chores exactly. There were never cleaning products available. I bought some, but was never reimbursed because it wasn't authorized. Any I bought other people would use, then there would be none. I brought my own cleaning supplies from home every shift. Bathroom cleaner, dish soap, disinfectant, rags, you name it.

If you failed to follow above (and too many others to list) you would have shifts taken from you, without warning. You would just show up for your shift and it would be crossed off the schedule. The reason was that `payroll had gone over for the week, we had to trim shifts`. You couldn`t call in half hour before your shift to check either, you actually had to show up to find out if you were working. They would also take out of your paycheck any food you had wasted due to it being outdated, moldy or whatever. It was listed as purchased on the pay, as in you had decided to buy the product, on credit, on your pay. You had no say in the matter.

My coworker got fired for calling the police on a customer that punched her in the face. She was told she instigated the incident, because she told the drunken idiot that she didn`t have any banana peppers left that night. Right.

I never got my ROE when I left, or a W4 ever. Also completely illegal. I had to do my taxes based on my last pay stub.

I could seriously fill pages with how awful that place was, but I`m sure if anyone at your local has been there more than a year it is much better run than mine was.

[fireheart]

I could seriously fill pages with how awful that place was, but I`m sure if anyone at your local has been there more than a year it is much better run than mine was.

Aussie based.

The only times I've had issues with yon local Subway has been when I'll rattle off 4-5 ingredients for my sub and the girl will do 4 and then ask me what the 5th was. (I get lettuce, carrot, capsicum, cucumber and baby spinach. Usually either the cucumber or the carrot goes missing)

[Ophbalance]

Maybe things aren't as bad in the US, or at least in my area? The crew that's been working at one of the locations in my area has been there for as long as I've in NC. Which at this point is seven years. And even though there's times when I've not been in that location for six months or more they still remember me.