So I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some advice. I'm not gunna name the names of my employers because I dont know what the ramifications would be but I dont know what to do or who to ask. So here I am!
Basically i work in a “big-name” coffee bar in a “big-name” grocery store. So our store manager got fired last week. Word spread quick and it turns out he was fired due to not enforcing unpaid lunch breaks (at least 30min per 6h shifts) but changing employees clock times to say they WERE taking their lunches when no one was. So not only were people working 6+ hours with no breaks, but their worked wages were stolen when he did this and paychecks were shorted.
Everyone in the store has been complaining about seemingly shorted paychecks for a while, myself included, yet none of us get pay stubs or really knows how to use the online portal. Plus were all so overworked, tired and stressed to do a deep dive to check, which looking back I guess we should've. None of us thought that such a big company would do this to us, and honestly I was pretty pissed no one was getting breaks, including myself but I cant speak for others. And in my coffee bar the policy is “never leave the bar unattended” and theres only ever one of us running it so we got “special permission” to skip breaks. Pissed me off. Whatever I need the money so I'm not tripping on it.
What pisses me off is the fact they fixed peoples time cards to reflect a break that never happened, shorting people worked money and effectively stealing out of our underpaid, over worked pockets.
Even more so, I'm pissed that corporate would sack the man responsible but not do a damn thing to make people aware of the theft and not compensate us. I had to hear this through the grapevine.
Of course maybe it's just a rumor. But were all young af, I'm 25 and most of my coworkers are around this age, younger or literal highschoolers. It doesn't seem like a fake rumor someone our age would just make up, usually the tea is stupid drama not anything on the level of wage theft. Plus the new replacement assistant manager is ADAMENT about breaks now. Like INSANELY adament, rude about it and threatening to fire anyone who might forget to take one. Sure fine. I get the importance legally and to our rights that breaks are. But they never cared before and suddenly this new lady cares with her whole being. Just suss.
So now me and my department, including our manager who feels she was shorted, are thinking about combing through our online pay stubs to check our hours and comparing them to the past schedules our manager created for us. We NEVER take breaks. But we also stay late and some of us leave early occasionally. So I dont know how to prove anything.
So any advice on what to do about any discrepancies? Or how to prove we didnt take breaks? Or who to even go to or call? I'm just so angry, I have a kid and I go to school. I already get paid a poverty wage and get over worked, barely scraping by. I'm so angry they'd steal out of me and my sons mouths. What do I do???