Saturday I found out that my pay structure had been changed two weeks ago without my knowledge. If you follow my Twitter, you know I was pissed. Last night I threw down with El Jefe about it and at first he tried to brush off my complaints.
The new pay structure: $8 while I am in-store. $4 while I am clocked out on a delivery. $1.29 (a nice round number to make things easy) for gas reimbursement on each delivery.
My complaints:
1. Not being notified of the pay rate change - From my perspective a pay-rate change is a time for me to decide if I still want to work there and an easy out. I am perfectly within my rights to say that I do not agree to work at the new pay structure since I agreed to my original structure only.
His answer was that he thought everyone knew, everyone he asked already knew. He apologized that I didn't know.
I responded that it's his responsibility to make sure everyone knew and relying on word of mouth is not a good way to do that.
2. We are pressured to check out deliveries before they are ready to make it look like we're getting pizzas out of the store sooner than we are. There are lots of times when he'll yell for us to get the runs logged out and then go help on makeline. There have been rare occasions when I'll check out a delivery and then a pizza goes missing and a remake is called and I'm in the store twenty minutes or more logged out on my runs the entire time. In the new pay scheme this is an unacceptable situation.
His answer, he agrees that the system will have to be more as intended now that every driver is on this pay scheme.
Whether anything will actually change or not remains to be seen.
3. Often, on busy days and nights, runs will get logged out under my name and then reassigned to the correct driver. However, if I get a cash-drop before they reassign the incorrect runs, the incorrect run can't be reassigned. I'm stuck with it and have to pay out the tip and gas money that will be included in my cash-out. If I'm only getting paid half during the time when I'm logged out, my sheet better only include my runs at the end of the night.
His argument was that if we're that busy I'm probably out of the store anyway making my driver rate and that if it's happening to me, it's happening to everyone.
I told him it's unacceptable that he's ok with even the potential of defrauding any driver of pay and that I expect management to be more vigilant of reassigning runs before it's too late.
I don't think I was being unreasonable. I'm not one of the stoners or highschoolers that will take this without questioning it.
Regarding my deliveries last night, I took 8, I taught a kid how to tip, and I made $34 (an average tip of $2.96).
3 comments:
I just broke two teeth when my jaw hit the floor. I am completely horrified about the change to your pay. Horrified at the pay structure, mortified at your boss's reaction to your concerns, flabbergasted that runs are clocked to you and you wind up paying for what you shouldn't... Oh. My. God. If any of that happened to me on my job, I would not only quit on the spot, I'd clean some clocks on my way out the door. Perhaps you should find a different pizza chain, my dear. Everything in your last post is simply unacceptable. You deserve better than that!
Gypsy: Thanks, I fully intend to apply for jobs closer to my appartment, I've just been lazy thus far about getting it done. I really want to keep working in pizza because I enjoy blogging. It wouldn't quite have the same ring if I was raging against a bookstore (I couldn't rage at bookstores anyway, they keep me happy with that intoxicating smell).
In reading your blog I was becoming increasingly convinced that you worked for the same chain as me. Now I'm sure of it.
The problem I had was that the manager would clock out everyone before the pizzas were even out of the oven, in order to make his times look better. Its incredibly unfair to do this to the drivers.
The amount you get paid when on a delivery is $3 under minimum wage and that's legal because during that time you're considered an employee that works for tips. The managment explained that with this new change they found that the drivers came out slightly ahead.
I never found this to be true, probably because of the manager screwing us like that for his own gain. Its also incredibly more difficult to calculate your effective hourly rate since it is going up and down all the time.
The other thing is that the customers aren't informed of this. They're still on the assumption that you get paid minimum wage and you get to keep 100% of the delivery fee so why would they tip you on top of that? Its not like your job is dangerous or anything...
Post a Comment