Tl;dr: My employer is cheating us out of our wages by forcing us to clock out for extended and/or extra “lunch breaks” whenever it's inconvenient to keep us on the clock.
Hi all. I need some advice, and a friend of mine suggested I post here.
I work for a small, local freight company in the Puget Sound area. One of the things we do is contract with Pitney Bowes to pick up presort mail from various companies and transport it to the PB sorting facility in Kent. This usually occurs in the afternoons, as we're generally making freight deliveries in the morning. The companies we pick up mail from each have a certain, fairly inflexible time at which the mail will be ready for pick up. That means that many times I've completed my morning deliveries well before it's time to start the mail route, which means I usually end up having to wait 45 minutes to over an hour in the van until it's time for the first mail pick up. I'm pretty much stuck there. Can't go home, can't really leave the van unattended, so I have no choice but to stay with the van. Here's the problem:
My company has a policy of requiring employees to either clock out for an extended “lunch break” during the times we're stuck in the van waiting for something to happen. We're not talking a standard 30 min then clock back in, they expect us to be clocked out the entire time we're waiting to be able to do our work. And this can happen two or more times in a standard 8 hour day, which basically means that if you want to get your 8 hours, you're essentially going to have to work around 11 hours.
My problem with this is that 1) it's neither my fault nor my problem that these companies want the mail picked up at a certain time and no earlier, 2) it's neither my fault nor my problem if there are not enough freight deliveries to fill that time gap, and 3) when I began my employment 6 years ago, I signed a piece of paper that gave me the choice of either taking a lunch or skipping lunches. I chose the latter, and I haven't signed anything to change that status since. Today was the last straw, as I ended up having to clock out for 45 minutes on top of the 1.5 hours during which I was made to take a lunch. My argument is that if I'm stuck, through no fault of my own, in the company vehicle, having to waiting around between work assignments, then I should be entitled to fair compensation. After all, I'm there on my employer's orders, so this forced clocking out nonsense is essentially wage theft. Even if it isn't wage theft, it's unethical as fuck and pretty goddamn sketchy.
I feel like I'm being both penalized for either being efficient or due to the lack of deliveries on any particular day, bad luck, and I don't know how to resolve this. We're not a union shop, and of course Washington is an at will state. I've considered filing a complaint with L&I, but it's not anonymous, so my employer can just come up with a bullshit excuse to fire me, even if they can't because I filed a complaint. I'm stuck, and I don't know what to do. Quitting before I have another job will put my family in a bind, so that's out. At this point, they owe my fellow workers and me thousands. My wife has suggested I consult a labor lawyer
Thoughts?