distribution side of the story

[dcdummy]

Thought you all might like to hear what's going on in our world. We are working 10 hours a day plus another 8 Saturday. Next week we've been told to be prepared to work Sat & Sun. Keep in mind that the DC is not air conditioned. Outdoor temps are approaching 100 degrees and it's that hot or hotter inside. Oh yeah, we've got fans but that doesn't

Comments

[anonymous]

just to add to dcdummmy, i work in a DC as well, probably the same one as you do. They are attempting to make certain departments work three times as hard as they were required before liquidation, and without spirit and incentive pay now, plus those departments are being told if they don't hit the numbers management wants that they will be written up. Also, premium pay positions, like forklift drivers, are being pushed into other departments because AA, or whomever, is dropping so much work that the staging areas are completely overfilled, so no more work can be picked from the racks, and the volume of product being processed is way more than the sorting and shipping departments can handle with their regular staff. Not to mention the antiquated equipment in the DC used to sort product is breaking down on a daily basis and being fixed with second hand replacement parts

[anonymous]

basic math time

according to a website is i saw, the TNDC has 283 employees. Say only 250 of these are paid hourly. 5 year plus employees should make $14/hr on average.

so $14/hr times 40 hours equals $560 a week.

18 hours of overtime at $21/hr equals $378 a week.

so the company is paying roughly $938 per employee per week.

times that by four weeks equals $3,752 per month, per employee, before taxes. The employees have taxes taken out after the company pays them, of course.

OK so $3,752 a month times 250 employees equals $938,000 a month on labor costs. Mind you, this is only accounting for hourly employees, add in the salary people and i'm sure it is probably closer to $1mil a month in labor only at this one DC!

I totally agree with the above statement about temps. It makes no sense to me either why they are pushing employees so hard in the heat. If it is to avoid paying another month's worth of rent on the building, is it really cheaper?

[anonymous]

"I totally agree with the above statement about temps. It makes no sense to me either why they are pushing employees so hard in the heat."

Gotta remember, this is still Borders, land of the totally incompetent management. They aren't going to change, just because it's end days.

pushing

[anonymous]

At this point, it's the liquidators pushing, not Borders. There really isn't anyone left at corporate anymore. The stores and DCs are on their own.

temps

[anonymous]

The reason they cannot hire temps is the difficulty the temp agency would have in getting paid. Remember that Borders is in Bankruptcy and any payments they make have to be submitted to court. Given that, a temp agency would have to hire a lawyer to prepare the paperwork for getting compensated for any work they do at the DCs. If you are not familiar with the rates lawyers charge for this kind of work, check the case dockets and request for compensation on bordersreorganization.com and you will understand why hiring temps does not make sense. Paying employees overtime is cheaper.

Cheers!

Since we're talking about overtime

[anonymous]

I thought the Fair Labor Act mandated that if you are on the clock for more than 8 hours during a single shift, you get paid time and a half for everything after those 8 hours? Overtime is also paid for every hour over 40 per week, right? It was like that at the 2 retail jobs I had before.

So is this overtime stuff legit? Is Borders just not paying overtime unless you go over 40 hours? Or can corporations legally not honor time and half for working more than an 8 hour shift?

Not that any of this even makes a difference anymore. Lets say they do owe us $ for overtime. They didn't pay then, they're not gonna pay now.

[book_wench]

if they don't hit the numbers management wants that they will be written up

Really? Next thing you know they'll be threatening to fire you and close the warehouse. Oh, wait…

Seriously, just nod and don't kill yourself. Because at this point they really can't do anything to you other than fire you early, which just means you'll start your unemployment earlier.