GameStop sued over employee security checks
A lawsuit has been filed against GameStop in California, alleging the company does not pay its employees for the time it takes to conduct mandatory security checks.
Video game retail giant GameStop has found its mandatory security checks on employees the subject of a new lawsuit. According to Superior Court of California documents discovered by GameSpot, the suit does not revolve around privacy concerns, but around GameStop's unpaid time used during security checks of employees when they take meals or breaks.
Filed seeking class-action status, the suit alleges GameStop's policy fails to provide employees with uninterrupted breaks, as per California State law. The law ensures employees receive a 30-minute meal break per five-hour shift and a 10-minute break per four-hour shift. According to the filing, hourly employees are not compensated for the time it takes to check them for potentially stolen property.
Other allegations are included in the class-action suit, including a note that GameStop fails to compensate employees for shifts exceeding eight hours in length as well as the company's lack of itemized wage statements, which is also required by California State law.
The suit seeks one hour's worth of pay for each day GameStop neglects to abide by meal and rest break periods as well as any other damages determined by the court.
Shacknews has contacted GameStop for comment, but has not heard back at the time of publishing.
Based on personal experience, security checks typically include an employee opening any bags or large pockets they have to show products have been been hidden. The process takes less than three minutes, which based on the $8.00 minimum wage equals to about .39 cents of unpaid wages.
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replyXav de Matos posted a new article, GameStop sued over employee security checks.
A lawsuit has been filed against GameStop in California, alleging the company does not pay its employees for the time it takes to conduct mandatory security checks.-
.39 cents everyday * 5 days a week *52 weeks in a year = $101.40 per year. And that's if there is only one check a day. What if you go out for lunch? Lunch and leaving at the end of the day is twice per day. So $202.80. It adds up.
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Didn't say it didn't. Thanks, though.
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To be fair, he didn't say that you didn't sat it didn't. He just said that.
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Just putting the complaint in perspective. It was not a dig.
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so is he!
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Your making the assumption that all California Gamestop employees are full-time, working 5 days a week, 52 weeks of the year. What about holidays / sick days -- be them paid or unpaid? I'm more interested in what this cost the State of California.
All for at most $200 a year (before taxes --- are they even taxed that low?), seems grounds for a frivolous lawsuit, and this whole thing should be thrown out.-
I'm sure people making $8 could really use another $200 a year. Maybe you 1% forget that!
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Douchey comment is douchey.
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Just putting the complaint in perspective for all.
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I don't think that you understand that it doesn't come across that way. It sounds like a perspective that vilifies the employees for standing up for their rights.
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So Gamestop searches all its employees every day to make sure they are not a thief? Fuck that noise. I could never work for a company that distrusted its employees so much that this is normal procedure.
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they have been doing that since before they bought out Funcoland... so thats about 11 or so years.... so.... add that one up lol
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I worked for Funcoland wayyy back when the N64 launched and they we just as shitty back then with selling the magazine/discount card and cleaning kits.. Oh god the pressure to sell that crap.
But they didn't do these checks at our store. We actually had serious issues with theft by employees both in product straight out the back door during taking out trash and employees simply turning around, taking a game off the used shelf, scanning it in as a return and pocketing the cash.
That job.. Maybe that's why I have a soft spot for GS as you wouldn't believe the fucking morons that come into those places. We told a guy he could use his "Funcoland Store Credit" at any store. He tried TRU and came back pissed because we said ANY STORE.. Almost got into a fistfight with the assistant manager over it. Yes, GS is shady, as naturally as a beast of a corporation can be. But Christ all mighty consumers can be flat out idiots sometimes. -
Nope, they didn't do that back in 2002 when I worked there. It started shortly after I left, and was part of the reason I did.
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well there is an alternative..... get a better higher paying job where they care about thier workers...
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oh ok. you should work on the national debt next
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You win at economics.
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this wins the thread. Obvious genius at work.
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This post is so horrible I couldn't even come up with a snappy retort.
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I had to go through this at 2 record stores I worked at. One of them, the boss made sure the last thing you did was clock out "so we don't get sued" , the other one, I was the boss so I just figured if they weren't on the clock I couldn't tell them to do anything. I guess retail gets nastier in this bad economy.
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What's ridiculous about this, is that they need to search their employees to begin with. Is theft so rampant among their own employees that they need to do this to the effect that it sparks this type of lawsuit? Don't they allow their employees to take home just about anything to "try out"?
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Trying something out is one thing, They have a log of you taking it home.
Just grabbing some shit and putting it in your backpack is something else.
I've worked retail for a long time, every store has had the policy to check your shit before you leave. I never stole so I never cared.
People need to realize they don't do this for shits and giggles. When you have people that get jobs at places JUST so they can steal you gotta do what you have to do to protect your profits.-
Plus most of the product in a GameStop is little boxes with a $20 to $60 MSRP each, with employees getting paid McJob wages. And they get shipments of boxes of games that can't be sold until their release date. It's like all the least-profitable, most-sensitive SKUs of a Best Buy rolled into one store (you know, other than the depreciation of used games, and new games stuck sitting on a shelf until they get returned to vendor).
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If they paid their people decently and didn't treat them like criminals they wouldn't have to worry about it so much.
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