For the past summer, my brother has worked at Quiznos as a part time job. Over the course of the two months, he’s have had countless complaints about the manager and the management style. Some of the poor treatments he experienced included:
– If employees work more than 8 hours, they swipe out at exactly 8 hours to avoid getting reprimanded, and then continue their duties until finished
– Getting scheduled for 7.5hrs many times so to avoid getting a paid break for working 8 hours+
– Not getting a break after 5 hours
– Guilt tripping employees into not quitting/ continuing to work/ working more
I believe (aside from the other moral, or humane issues) that the main ethical issue involved was the meal break issue. According to the Government of B.C., Ministry of Labour, Employment Standards Branch, under section “Meal Plan” it states that “an employee must not work more than five hours in a row without an unpaid 30 minute break”. My brother has no choice but to stealthy grab a ‘crushed’ cookie from the front and eat it in the back in substitute for his break. He works long hours and the manager schemingly designs the schedule so that employees work long hours without getting a break and therefore not paying for non-labour. The manager is clearly infringing on labour laws to get the most out of her employees without having to pay any extra fees. This is unethical and luckily he was able to quit after getting guilt tripped multiple times (he knew of cases where employees quit and was still scheduled for work afterwards).
