A lawsuit that may not suit me
So, a few days ago, I received an email inviting me to participate in a class-action lawsuit against my employer Anthem, on behalf of employees who had been required to be at work before clocking in or after clocking out, to be able to start taking calls on time or finish leftover work. Basically, they're accusing Anthem of wage theft, and not without cause.
I'm well acquainted with this cause, because for the first couple of years I worked there, up until about a year ago, I had to do that myself. We had to be at work 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time so that we had ample time to log into our computers and launch all the apps we needed, so that we could take calls at the stroke of the top of the hour. It was annoying to me, but given that Amazon's warehouse workers lost their lawsuit over having to get to work 25 minutes early so they could go through security to get in, it didn't seem like there was much hope it would change. Then, surprise! About a year ago, it did change after all. We got 10 minutes at the start of our shift after clocking in to log in, boot up all our apps, and start taking calls, and we have ever since. And I'm pleased with that, even though I work from home now. It might not be worth all that much, but it's the principle of the thing.
As aggravated as I was with the injustice of the thing before they finally switched practices, you'd think I'd want to hop right on that lawsuit. But I'm still on the fence, as there are a couple of things holding me back. For one thing, I'm not sure just how likely it is the suit can actually win. After all, if Amazon's workers could be denied 25 minutes of payment per day, what are our chances of getting 5 or 10? (Though apparently the Amazon lawsuit isn't entirely done yet, and the workers are having another go at it, so maybe they could still turn it around.) And the lawsuit page warns that people who join in the suit "may be required to pay a portion of Anthem’s costs" if Anthem wins. Even if Anthem loses (or settles), class action lawsuits don't generally have a good track record of garnering large payouts to class members. So I'm not sure it's worth potentially putting myself on the hook for legal fees in return for maybe ten or twenty bucks if I'm lucky. Class-action suits are more meant to punish the perpetrator for wrongdoing than enrich the members of the class, and they can undoubtedly punish Anthem just fine without my participation.
Also, even though the law forbids Anthem from retaliating against people for taking part in such a lawsuit, I'm not so sure that I want my name on the list of people who did that, given that it might well influence future decisions they make about me even if they don't directly retaliate against me. I do kind of like my job, and don't think I'd want to do anything to endanger it even indirectly. And since they already fixed the early login issue a year back, and I'm no longer being required to work several unpaid minutes a day, it's not like I even really need to participate. I've already got the better outcome I was hoping for.
So, really, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. But I have until October 3 to make up my mind.
I'm well acquainted with this cause, because for the first couple of years I worked there, up until about a year ago, I had to do that myself. We had to be at work 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time so that we had ample time to log into our computers and launch all the apps we needed, so that we could take calls at the stroke of the top of the hour. It was annoying to me, but given that Amazon's warehouse workers lost their lawsuit over having to get to work 25 minutes early so they could go through security to get in, it didn't seem like there was much hope it would change. Then, surprise! About a year ago, it did change after all. We got 10 minutes at the start of our shift after clocking in to log in, boot up all our apps, and start taking calls, and we have ever since. And I'm pleased with that, even though I work from home now. It might not be worth all that much, but it's the principle of the thing.
As aggravated as I was with the injustice of the thing before they finally switched practices, you'd think I'd want to hop right on that lawsuit. But I'm still on the fence, as there are a couple of things holding me back. For one thing, I'm not sure just how likely it is the suit can actually win. After all, if Amazon's workers could be denied 25 minutes of payment per day, what are our chances of getting 5 or 10? (Though apparently the Amazon lawsuit isn't entirely done yet, and the workers are having another go at it, so maybe they could still turn it around.) And the lawsuit page warns that people who join in the suit "may be required to pay a portion of Anthem’s costs" if Anthem wins. Even if Anthem loses (or settles), class action lawsuits don't generally have a good track record of garnering large payouts to class members. So I'm not sure it's worth potentially putting myself on the hook for legal fees in return for maybe ten or twenty bucks if I'm lucky. Class-action suits are more meant to punish the perpetrator for wrongdoing than enrich the members of the class, and they can undoubtedly punish Anthem just fine without my participation.
Also, even though the law forbids Anthem from retaliating against people for taking part in such a lawsuit, I'm not so sure that I want my name on the list of people who did that, given that it might well influence future decisions they make about me even if they don't directly retaliate against me. I do kind of like my job, and don't think I'd want to do anything to endanger it even indirectly. And since they already fixed the early login issue a year back, and I'm no longer being required to work several unpaid minutes a day, it's not like I even really need to participate. I've already got the better outcome I was hoping for.
So, really, I'm feeling pretty ambivalent about the whole thing. But I have until October 3 to make up my mind.