GameStop Sued By Employee Over Security Checks

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I guess if you are going to check employees for stolen items, the least you can do is make sure they are on the clock when you frisk them. :D

Considering that so much of the retail theft that occurs each year is a result of sticky-fingered employees, some stores like GameStop have apparently instituted policies that require staffers to be checked for pilfered product when they go to take a break during the workday. But one employee at the video game chain says these breaks cut into the amount of time allotted for mandatory lunch and rest breaks — and he's suing to get paid for that time.
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Mandatory rest breaks?

This guy works at GameStop, not a lumber mill. We have breaks at our office, but it is not required under Texas law for indoor "light activity" jobs, only a lunch break is.

And back when I worked in retail, I was friends with the loss prevention guy and he told me point blank that he has very little concern over customers and is there really just to make sure employee's aren't stealing the store blind as they are the ones that have easy access to high dollar items which on the floor have passive protection.
 
Ducman69 said:
Mandatory rest breaks?

This guy works at GameStop, not a lumber mill. We have breaks at our office, but it is not required under Texas law for indoor "light activity" jobs, only a lunch break is.

And back when I worked in retail, I was friends with the loss prevention guy and he told me point blank that he has very little concern over customers and is there really just to make sure employee's aren't stealing the store blind as they are the ones that have easy access to high dollar items which on the floor have passive protection.
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I've worked in all WA, OR, and CA and all three states require a 10 min break if you work at least 4 hours, mandatory 30 min if you work at least 5.5 hours, and two 10s and a 30 if you work at least 8 hours.
 
It has been a few years since I had to deal with this, but in California, every employee working an 8 hour shift is legally entitled to:

* One 30 minute lunch break. The lunch break must be AT LEAST 30 minutes. Coming back even one minute early is a violation. The employer cannot require the employee to remain on the premises

* Two 15 minute breaks. I forget the exact timing requirements, but they cannot be taken consecutively, cannot be used to extend the lunch break, and cannot be used to begin/end your shift early. The employer can require the employee to remain on the premises for this break.
 
Yes, during breaks you're being paid on company time and thus their responsibility, whereas at lunch it is unpaid time and you're on your own.

And to the OP; all the more reason not to shop at Gamestop. Giving patdowns to keep people from stealing Mario Kart...pfft.
 
Personaly I think he should, and hope he wins.

There have been simmilar cases, and subsequent labor laws created for being on the clock while putting on a uniform or PPE required to do the job.

If his required duties include being frisked for stolen property, then he should be on the clock while performing his required duties, and getting frisked.
 
Velox said:
It has been a few years since I had to deal with this, but in California, every employee working an 8 hour shift is legally entitled to:

* One 30 minute lunch break. The lunch break must be AT LEAST 30 minutes. Coming back even one minute early is a violation. The employer cannot require the employee to remain on the premises

* Two 15 minute breaks. I forget the exact timing requirements, but they cannot be taken consecutively, cannot be used to extend the lunch break, and cannot be used to begin/end your shift early. The employer can require the employee to remain on the premises for this break.
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PA has something similiar though they are allowed to combine them if they so choose. Target did 1 hour break at 4 hours that included your 30 minutes off the clock with both 15 minutes on the clock at once. So yes, if he is in the right state, he may very well have a valid case.
 
I'd be pissed too if these whack ass searches interupted my break...especially everyday I mean gesh......
 
Ducman69 said:
Mandatory rest breaks?

This guy works at GameStop, not a lumber mill. We have breaks at our office, but it is not required under Texas law for indoor "light activity" jobs, only a lunch break is.
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Seriously, lose the must-work-knuckles-to-bone pride nonsense. Workers deserve rights and Texas' laws are not divinely written or necessarily even rationally written.

The Texas pride thing got old long ago.

Anyways, if you have to stand still behind a counter for 8 hours a day, you deserve a damn break every now and then. I'm not a restless person but even I loathed working that kind of job. If the management (upper and lower) aren't willing to work under such conditions, they need to factor that into their callous and disrespectful decisions they force onto their employees. So, good on the employees for pushing back against the further encroachment against their rights, regardless of how small you think it is.


SCSI-Terminator said:
Personaly I think he should, and hope he wins.

There have been simmilar cases, and subsequent labor laws created for being on the clock while putting on a uniform or PPE required to do the job.

If his required duties include being frisked for stolen property, then he should be on the clock while performing his required duties, and getting frisked.
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its a win win. good gamestop for stopping employee theft but dumb for not thinking that they were going to have a break lawsuit, so good for the guy sticking up for worker rights.

however the gamestop by our house in a not so good neighborhood (a few miles away)...

each time we go there half the games we want are "missing" and they blame the online website. its a greasy dirty store in milwaukee... i've complained twice now that they have an obvious employee theft issue.
 
Pretty simple, employee/rs follow state labor laws, or they lobby for them to be changed. Don't dick around.
 
Ducman69 said:
Mandatory rest breaks?

This guy works at GameStop, not a lumber mill. We have breaks at our office, but it is not required under Texas law for indoor "light activity" jobs, only a lunch break is.

And back when I worked in retail, I was friends with the loss prevention guy and he told me point blank that he has very little concern over customers and is there really just to make sure employee's aren't stealing the store blind as they are the ones that have easy access to high dollar items which on the floor have passive protection.
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I'm sorry, but everyone is entitled to a break after so many hours of work. Just because you think you work harder than a Gamestop employee doesn't mean that they aren't entitled to breaks.
 
simonizor said:
I'm sorry, but everyone is entitled to a break after so many hours of work. Just because you think you work harder than a Gamestop employee doesn't mean that they aren't entitled to breaks.
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I think the person was joking around about the potential lazy nature of a job like that compared to other jobs. Wasn't meant to get sand in your vajayjay over labor laws and crap LOL. :D
 
So why would you go as far as to frisk your employee and just check the dang security cameras I bet ya money they would get them within a week.
 
bootloops said:
So why would you go as far as to frisk your employee and just check the dang security cameras I bet ya money they would get them within a week.
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You are assuming they would notice right away that something was stolen. You are talking about games, they would not know about it for weeks, months or longer. Game goes missing and it is not a popular one they could never notice that they only have 3 copies instead of 4. Somebody trades in a game that they want, they toss it into the bag or pocket and walk off with it, how is that going to be caught? They don't exactly have perfect tracking to know where every copy of every game is to the point where it would never really be know to have been stolen for them to know to go look at the tape.


This is one time when trying to wait till after it happens wouldn't help. I'll admit I have shop at EB Games every now and then. But only if there is an old game that I want that isn't for sale anymore, I'll go see if they have a used copy. There has been a few times I've just walked in and asked about if they had a game instead of looking on the shelf, they said yes but then when I go look on the shelf where it should be it is not there. A few times I've seen it somewhere else later on due to somebody grabbing it, then changing their mind and just tossing it back on a shelf at random. Other times who knows, maybe they screwed up and the system had down that they had too many in stock, maybe it was really misplaced, maybe it was stolen. Regardless unless they go through every night and count every copy of every game they aren't going to know that one copy walked off.

That said, I think it is horrible that they have to pad down workers like that. I'm guessing though that is in a place where theft is common place otherwise I couldn't see them doing something like that. Ones by me don't have guards to do stuff like that.
 
an old friend use to run a scam at compusa until they got caught as minors in the 90's. the "pat you down guy" was in on it. they stole 20k+ in goods.

needless to say, i dont trust him around my stuff or house lol.
 
Teenk9 said:
I've worked in all WA, OR, and CA and all three states require a 10 min break if you work at least 4 hours, mandatory 30 min if you work at least 5.5 hours, and two 10s and a 30 if you work at least 8 hours.
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thats because when the laws were written the word work had a very different meaning, people actually needed those breaks
 
Geez, my job I work 12 hour shifts and I don't know what a real break is. somedays were lucky to get a 10 minute break all day. Other days you get like 3 hours lol. And its not managements fault, you just get so busy you don't even see the time go by lol. but I know working retail, while not nearly as physically demanding as my job it is probably alot more fatiguing due to the standing and monotonous nature of it and I understand this guys complaint.

Were required to show up 15min before shift starts (unpaid) to gear up and be out there when your shift begins but we also leave 10-20 min early when we can to make up for it, id be pissed if I had to give up my personal unpaid time because they said so.
 
nobody_here said:
thats because when the laws were written the word work had a very different meaning, people actually needed those breaks
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Yes, but when you have dull jobs like this it goes against natural human tendancy to get out and explore.

Not all of us enjoy being under someones thumb all the time, even though its more "economical" and taught in management school for the gifted.

Humans need to ask not how can we work harder, but how can we work less. There is no reason every person should work 40% of their life, sleep 50% of their life and spend 10% of thier life actually enjoying it.
 
westrock2000 said:
Yes, but when you have dull jobs like this it goes against natural human tendancy to get out and explore.

Not all of us enjoy being under someones thumb all the time, even though its more "economical" and taught in management school for the gifted.

Humans need to ask not how can we work harder, but how can we work less. There is no reason every person should work 40% of their life, sleep 50% of their life and spend 10% of thier life actually enjoying it.
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yes you are right, we should definitely look for ways to work less, because the things that need to get done can now magically get themselves done, the poor poor kids at Gamestop....they should get 8 hours pay for 4 hours work.

the reason is so we dont become fat and lazy and complacent

you could become an Eloi before you know it
 
Ducman69 said:
Exactly, I'm sure he and his lawyer think he is entitled to $250K for the 95 seconds of his time they wasted.
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Ah. You're new here. Let me tell you how we're going to do things. I'm going to demand to see your papers every time you make a post on here. If your documents aren't in order, you will be deported to Fark.com.

Papers, please.
 
It's pretty cut and dry. If they were taking time away from his meal and rest breaks, they owe him the money as an hourly employee. Gamestop will lose if it's factually correct.
 
This guys not upset about the lost time on break. Hes upset about getting his balls cupped just to leave for a few minutes. The lost time is just a lawyer way of looking at it. Only way to press charges probably. This is why retail work sucks ass.
 
nobody_here said:
thats because when the laws were written the word work had a very different meaning, people actually needed those breaks
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LOL, that law is not old. It's fairly recent and the reason they were codified is because of companies taking advantage of employees. And it's not like it's one sided- an employee that doesn't take their mandatory 30 min break can be fired for breaking that same law. I learned this long ago when I was an assistant manager at a Burger King. The laws are there to protect both employees and employers.
 
I'm lost.... so did he not have breaks? that's what the article seem to suggest?
 
westrock2000 said:
Yes, but when you have dull jobs like this it goes against natural human tendancy to get out and explore.

Not all of us enjoy being under someones thumb all the time, even though its more "economical" and taught in management school for the gifted.

Humans need to ask not how can we work harder, but how can we work less. There is no reason every person should work 40% of their life, sleep 50% of their life and spend 10% of thier life actually enjoying it.
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I think you exagerate.

At least for me... I work 26% (when accounting for PTO), Sleep 25% (6 hours sleep, not 12 like you), and do whatever for the remaining 49%.
 
I'm sure this person has NEVER EVER come back 30-45 seconds late either.


Gamestop should take him to court every time he's late on a paid break. Think of the millions lost on this guy, MILLIONS!!



:rolleyes:
 
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