A week after an internal investigation – aided by company engineers – uncovered carbon emissions issues with 800,000 Volkswagen vehicles, the carmaker says it will keep the door open for employees to share any cheating within the organization – as long as they do it by the end of the month. [More]
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Whole Foods Cutting 1,500 Jobs In Order To Offer Customers Lower Prices
Your next shopping trip to Whole Foods may come with a bit less interaction with employees, as the health food chain said Monday that it would be eliminating approximately 1,500 jobs in order to offer lower prices for its goods. [More]
Former Uber Driver In California Granted Unemployment Payments
While a decision by the California Employment Development Department only affects one employee and their claim for unemployment benefits, it’s yet another official declaration from a government agency that the people who drive for Uber have an employer-employee relationship with the company, which in theory should entitle them to benefits that employees receive: reimbursement of vehicle costs, having the employer’s portion of their income taxes paid, and receiving unemployment benefits when their employment with the company ends involuntarily, if appropriate. [More]
Man Masquerading As Walmart Employee Walks Out The Door With Four Big Screen TVs
Walmart already has a long list of workers vying for the title of “worst employee,” but it’s a thief posing as an employee at the big box store that might take the cake: walking in the door, grabbing four big screen TVs and simply walking back out the way he came.
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American Airlines CEO Denies Claims Of Industry Collusion
While the Department of Justice investigates the possibility that airlines colluded to keep ticket prices high, the top executive at American Airlines is trying to assure his employees that the company did nothing wrong. [More]
Victoria’s Secret Plans To End On-Call Scheduling
Employees at Victoria’s Secret will no longer have to call in to find out if they’ll be hawking lotions, perfumes, bras, underwear and other products on any given day, as the company plans to end its use of on-call scheduling. [More]
IKEA Raising Minimum Wage Again, This Time To $11.87/Hour
Almost exactly a year after IKEA announced it would raise the hourly starting wage for employees from $9.17 to $10.76, the furniture retailer says it will give workers another 10% pay boost. [More]
Instacart Gives Shoppers Employee Status, Says It’s To Improve Customer Experience
App-based, on-demand services make it easy to order a variety of products and services, and many of the workers who bring you those services are full- or part-time contractors. Some companies, like on-demand ride providers Uber and Lyft, are actively fighting in court to not be forced to give their workers “employee” status. Another company, shopping service Instacart, is proactively making their grocery pickers in some states employees. [More]
Walmart’s Key To Happy Employees: Relaxing The Dress Code, Making Sure Stores Aren’t Freezing
In an effort to show employees – and the rest of the world – that it cares, Walmart says it plans to address worker concerns by relaxing its dress code and making stores warmer. [More]
Walmart Raising Hourly Wages For 100,000 Specialty Department Employees
Four months after Walmart began raising wages for around 40% of its workers, the nation’s largest retailer is announcing another round of pay increases affecting around 100,000 additional employees. [More]
Uber, Lyft Trying To Convince Courts That Drivers Are Not Employees
What’s the difference between a contractor working for you and an employee? Often, an employee will receive benefits like health insurance and workers compensation if something goes awry, among other things, while a contractor is hired to do one job and that is it. Uber and Lyft don’t want their drivers to fall into the employee category and be responsible for all that entails, but thus far they haven’t been able to sway the courts to see it their way. [More]
EEOC: Company Forced Employees To Practice Onion-Based Religion
This could just be a regular story about a company allegedly using its power over employees to force them to practice a specific religion until the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission intervened, and that would be interesting enough. However, an EEOC lawsuit alleges that the owners of a Long Island health insurance company forced employees to practice a belief system started by a relative. [More]
Consumers’ Evolving Shopping Habits Mean There Aren’t As Many Jobs In Retail
Some days it’s hard to motivate yourself to go to the mall to shop, it’s just easier to shop online. We’ve all had those days, okay, maybe it’s just me, but still, tendencies like that are creating a problem of sorts for retail workers. The more efficient we’re becoming at buying our goods, the fewer retail workers are needed a new report shows. [More]
Best Buy Shoppers And Employees Save 9-Year-Old Girl From Violent Attacker
It isn’t just every parent’s nightmare: it’s the nightmare of every human being with a functioning soul. Police in Florida say that a stranger attacked a 9-year-old girl in the ladies’ rest room of a Best Buy store on Friday night while her mother was paying for her purchases. Another customer heard her screams, and witnesses say that employees and other bystanders rushed in to save the child. [More]
Getting Your iPhone Fixed Is Not An Invitation To Be Sexually Harassed
Sure, an employee might flirt with customers here and there, and maybe ask one out on occasion. When someone isn’t interested, though, it’s time to drop the matter. And when they remind you more than once that they’re under age, it’s really time to drop it. Such subtleties were not obvious to a 33-year-old AT&T store worker who wouldn’t stop texting a 16-year-old who came in one day to get his iPhone fixed. [More]
Court Denies Walmart Appeal Of $187.6 Million Judgment
Pennsylvania Walmart employees scored another victory against the company in their case that accused the company of substandard labor practices. A state Superior Court judge panel denied Walmart’s appeal of a $187.6 million judgment in 2006. [More]
Walmart Worker Gets Run Over Trying To Stop Robbery
They’re not paying you minimum wage to be a hero. [More]