I was thinking about this recently and was curious on what people's thoughts were on if this was legal or just shitty.
So my fiance used to work for a fast food company a couple years, (I'm curious if anyone can guess which) in which every quarter, they held what they would call a 'Bash', which was basically a meeting where they would discuss the new items for the quarter and sometimes have small samples where they would try the new products, as well as talk about site scores and metrics/policies.
And I mean, it sounds okay, except they were mandatory and unpaid. And these things would go on for hours and where late in the evening, like 6pm-9pm. And they would write you up if you didn't come. And again, it was unpaid.
That company just wasn't a great company to begin with. My fiance has Autism Spectrum Disorder and we've always felt they've taken advantage of him and denied him promotions because of that. He would always pick up shifts when asked, was top in production in the region and was employee of the month for about 6 months in a row. But when he asked to move up they always denied him for some bullshit reason. He even helped them move from the old address to a new location and was told he was going to get paid but then never was.
AND HE NEVER TOOK BREAKS. He said that if he took his breaks he would get behind and people would get mad at him because no one would take his place during those times. So he didn't take any breaks for 6+ hours shifts. And sure that may have been on him for not taking them, but shouldn't his managers have noticed and told him to take them? They knew of his disability and knew he struggled with standing up for himself and should have had someone to cover him. Aren't they required to take breaks after so many hours?
We weren't very knowledgeable about regulations and stuff back then and I wasn't even on reddit at that time so I hadn't joined r/antiwork yet but now I know how awful and bullshit it was. Not much we can do about it now but I was just curious on if this was all legal or if there was anything we could/should do.