Ordering uniform shirts

[Flying Grype]

One teeny weeny little thing that's bugging me about where I work -- the uniform shirts. I'm working in a toy store and we're supposed to get red polo shirts with the store logo on them and wear those at work. There's a guy who's been there longer than I have, maybe a month? He doesn't have his yet. If we don't have the shirts we're supposed to wear white shirts, and then we can borrow store aprons to put over top. That's cool but there aren't enough aprons for all the seasonal employees.

I said to my manager the other day, it's a bit silly that I have to order and pay for these shirts (the cost of the shirts will be gradually deducted from my pay) and they could take two months to get here, when it's seasonal work and I may not be here after two months. I told him I wasn't going to pay for them if I hardly got to wear them at all, and he said that was fine. I guess that means they'll have to reimburse me at the end of my employment if the shirts never came in.

ETA: when I discussed this with Mr. Grype he asked if I was paying cost for the shirts or if the company could be making a profit on them. They were $20 each for embroidered polos so I imagine there could be a slight profit. That could get very scammy, there are a few new hires besides myself in this one store, and a bunch in other stores, and it's possible none of us will get the uniform shirts in a reasonable amount of time. I expect my drop-dead date will be early December, and at that time I'll put my foot down and say I want to be reimbursed for them.

[Andara Bledin]

You might want to check your local labor laws. A goodly number of places have deemed it illegal for your company to require special clothing and also require that you pay for said special clothing, unless it's something that will be wearable outside of the company. But in that case, the clothes are the employee's, not the company's, so if the company wants to keep them, they have to reimburse the employee for their cost.

If you're feeling feisty over it, I would strongly suggest you ask someone paid to know and disseminate such information.

^-.-^

[Flying Grype]

Interesting idea, thanks... I can't imagine it's illegal here, since it's so common, but really that means nothing.

ETA: I looked it up, and it's loopholey. Basically an employer can deduct money from an employee's wages to pay for uniforms if the employee agrees in writing and signs it. The loophole, of course, is that you have to agree to it in order to work there.