Woes of a Pizza Delivery Guy

[Mikkel]

What if you keep your bills sorted and the large coins in a special room. You aren't counting, just putting three one dollar bills and one five dollar bill in the right places and the three 50 cent coins in their room and then pouring the rest down in the third room. It will probably come over as being a little OCD, but it will allow you to get an idea of how much you have received.

[ADeMartino]

I think your manager needs to look up the word offend.

I think the manager needs to do some research on basic business practices first. How can ANYONE who runs a business POSSIBLY think it's a good idea to just take someone's word for it when there's cash involved? Of course, he's insulated himself from the problem by making the drivers responsible for any shortages, so he probably DOES think it's a great idea. Yet another case of management being completely disconnected from reality.

There is no f*cking way in blinking blue blazes I'd sit still for this retarded policy. They can screw around with their own $$$ all they want, but when they start trying to play with MINE, they'd best be prepared for the great granddaddy of all shit storms.

[JustShootMe]

No. No. And NO. Being responsible for a till in a grocery store, you bet your ass I count whatever they give me, ESPECIALLY if they tell me what they handed me. Do I care if they are offended? Ummmm, No. Management gets a lot more offended with till shortages & I get a lot more offended if I get written up because it.

Fuck that noise.

[Sapphire Silk]

National chain...
oh, and I live in a "Right to Work" state... meaning the so-called Labor Board has no jurisdiction whatsoever. None. No one but your employer has any jurisdiction over your employer in an "RTW" state. Not even OSHA

Folks can claim to the opposite all you want, but I've worked under "RTW" for the last 18 years, and I've never seen anyone be legally able to take an employer to task on anything...and I've seen some crap pulled.

Probably because you don't know how. All Right to work means is you can't be forced to join a union or pay union dues if your workplace unionizes. Given the South's deep opposition to unions (I live in North Carolina myself), it's probable that there are no unions of any kind in your area, in any industry. So you have little experience with how they work or what they do. Right to work doesn't mean you CAN'T unionize. It only means that if you do, you can't force all your co-workers to join with you.

At will employment is something else. You are probably an at will employee, that is you don't have an employment contract (my current job I work on a contract basis; I can't be fired unless for cause) so your employer can fire you for any reason or no reason. You can also quit at the drop of a hat. I have to give substantial notice.

OSHA applies to ALL workplaces. If your employers have told you otherwise, they LIED to you. However, OSHA only applies to workplace safety, not compensation. It is FEDERAL. Federal law always trumps state law.

And the Labor Board in TN can indeed help you. From the FAQ on their website:

Can my employer withhold the cost of my uniform, equipment, company loans, shortages and negligence, etc. from my paycheck?
No. Your employer cannot make any deductions from your paycheck without your consent to the deductions.

If your boss is telling you otherwise, he is lying to you. If your co-workers have told you other wise, they are mistaken. Not knowing your rights is how workers get screwed.

The final straw was when they told us we HAD to accept checks, but if a check bounced we owned it. We'd have to go after the customer for payment OURSELVES.

Yeah, that's absolute BS given that the check would have be written to the store rather than the delivery driver. The driver CAN'T collect on it. It's illegal to boot. Employers can't deduct from your wages for shortages without your consent. That's true in every state.

Years ago, my first nursing employer was tampering with my time cards. Finally the staff got fed up, and we filed a class action suit for our back wages. We got them.

[Sliceanddice]

National chain...
oh, and I live in a "Right to Work" state... meaning the so-called Labor Board has no jurisdiction whatsoever. None. No one but your employer has any jurisdiction over your employer in an "RTW" state. Not even OSHA

Folks can claim to the opposite all you want, but I've worked under "RTW" for the last 18 years, and I've never seen anyone be legally able to take an employer to task on anything...and I've seen some crap pulled.

they still have some power. otherwise you would be working in a g string with fires poping up around you all day for less the minimum wage while your manager caresses your leg. in rtw you can still report things like failure to pay proper wages, hostile work environments, sexual harassment, unsafe working conditions and so on. it just harder to to sue for wrongful termination

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

National chain...
oh, and I live in a "Right to Work" state... meaning the so-called Labor Board has no jurisdiction whatsoever. None. No one but your employer has any jurisdiction over your employer in an "RTW" state. Not even OSHA

Folks can claim to the opposite all you want, but I've worked under "RTW" for the last 18 years, and I've never seen anyone be legally able to take an employer to task on anything...and I've seen some crap pulled.

Ahh, no. State and local law do not trump OSHA, and last time I checked workers in all states cannot have shortages coming out of their paycheck.

I would run this past the local labor board, and escalate to the state level if nothing comes of it. There is at least one very illegal thing going on here.

[mhkohne]

If you do nothing else, make sure you look up the law about minimum wage for tipped employees. It's not that they just pay you less, there's rules about making up to regular min wage if you don't make enough in tips. I am not a lawyer, but google for it and keep all your paperwork.

[Sapphire Silk]

If you do nothing else, make sure you look up the law about minimum wage for tipped employees. It's not that they just pay you less, there's rules about making up to regular min wage if you don't make enough in tips. I am not a lawyer, but google for it and keep all your paperwork.

Yes, yes, yes. I forgot to mention this.

If you are a tipped worker, and you don't earn enough in tips to make minimum wage, then your employer MUST make up the difference! That's federal, so it applies to every state.

When I worked doing pizza delivery, I actually make more than minimum wage. MW then was 3.35/hr. I got 4.25/hr plus 7 cents/mile and tips. Since I was a MW worker, a lot of my tips went under the table (when I filed my taxes since I wasn't a tipped worker I could get away with this easier than a waitress could). This was good, since a lot of customers stiffed me on tips, and I had to pay for my own gas and maintenance. 7 cents a mile just wasn't enough to keep up.

[EricKei]

IANAL - none of us are. Forcing you to be responsible for money you are forbidden to count...? Unlikely to be legal, except possibly through some obscure loophole that needs patching. Consider consulting the Labor Board or ask a lawyer friend. Who cares if it offends people? Maybe it would offend the people intending to short you anyway... If I gave a cashier/driver money for my food, I'd talk to their manager if they just put the money away without counting it. I'd assume that the receiver was in need of training/common sense.

What SS and others have said -- Talk to the Labor Board, and escalate if need be. Talk to OSHA if a safety issue has come up. Talk to any allies you may have in other stores of this company, preferably in other states if possible. If this practice is just this store/owners/district, they're violating company policy AND possibly actual laws, and Corporate will wanna know about it. See if the national company site has info you can obtain. If it's Corp policy, ...eugh. That would be kinda scary.

Just as a side note: I gotta give the standard warning here, as the matter of receiving tips is integral to this conversation: No discussion of "whether to tip/whether tipping is neccessary" or anything along those lines, please. Hasn't happened yet, I simply feel obliged to head such things off at the pass.

[bainsidhe]

there's rules about making up to regular min wage if you don't make enough in tips. I am not a lawyer, but google for it and keep all your paperwork.

Agreed. And I question whether the mileage reimbursement would ever count towards your wage. That's reimbursement for gas and wear/tear on your car.

[EricKei]

If you mean the Federal/IRS one: the Mileage only applies if your employer does NOT cover your mileage costs, though I am unaware whether this means "paying you something extra as Mileage at all" or "paying you enough extra as Mileage to actually cover your costs" ...

[MadMike]

Employers can't deduct from your wages for shortages without your consent.

Sadly, a lot of employees don't seem to know this, especially the younger ones. The manager at the supermarket where I worked back in the late 80s put up a notice in the back room that any cash register shortages would be deducted from your paycheck. I didn't know that wasn't legal, and I'm guessing most of the other employees didn't either. Then a few weeks later, the sign mysteriously vanished, with no further mention of this policy. Looking back now, I'm thinking that one of the older cashiers, who actually knew better, called him on it.

[EricKei]

I fell victim to this when I was working at AccountingFirm. I was forced to pay for a laptop (that i didn't want, that I had to have for out-of-town training), some company expenses (when the boss assigned me to work that I had never been trained for so we had to have outside help), and a set of tools that some unscrupulous workers he hired stole. All in all, out over 3 grand that I know of...When I complained, he just changed to taking out deductions without listing them on my paycheck. Unfortunately, I was never able to get an lawyer interested int he case -- probably too low a payout to make it worth their while (Punitive Damages do not exist in Louisiana, so it was face value + court fees at best)

[drunkenwildmage]

Wow..The Pizza delivery game has changed since I used to do it.

When I served my time in the the early to mid 90s, I was hired in 50 cents above minimum wage as a driver ($4.25 was min, I was hired at $4.75) Started out at $.70 per delivery, dropped to $.60 (With an hourly increase) then they bounced it back up to $.70 if you put on a sign That was when if the price of gas went above $1.25 per/gal it was considered high.

I place I worked at was an regional chain at the time, but is now a national chain.

[PuckLizardRN]

Wow-not being able to count the money? That is just wrong.