Stealing time???

[Theredeemer]

Over the years of being a package car driver, I have heard stories of management accusing people of "stealing time." And based on that assupmtion, management was able to proceed in terminating the employee who they deemed guilty of this infraction. At my hub, I usually start at 8:30am. If I worked straight through without taking a lunch from 8:30am till I punch out at 5:30pm, that equals a total of 9 hours. Now being that I didn't take my lunch, I am only going to get paid for eight hours of work.
If I did this for a year (50 weeks) that would amount to 250 hours of time that i actually worked but the company did not pay me for it. If you multiply 250 hours times the approxiamate over time rate of 45 dollars an hour, the total would be $11,250. If you had 100 drivers in your center who did the same thing, the grand total would be $1,125,000.
I believe that most drivers take their lunch. However, there are times when you need to finish your route as soon as possible. You may have to take your son to his baseball game or pick up your mother from the hospital....etc. So you will work all day straight through without taking a break. Is it just me or is it ups "stealing time" from its hourly employees??

 

[brownIEman]

How can UPS be stealing your one hour a day when you are voluntarily working through the lunch? If you chose to take the lunch, then there would be no possible way that hour would be stolen. But you are the one choosing to work through the lunch, you are in effect giving that time to UPS. I understand your motivation, you would rather spend that hour with your family. I get that. Does not change the fact that you are making a choice.

 

[menotyou]

My center takes it automatically.

 

[brett636]

Are you clocking out for lunch then continuing to work through it or are you working straight for 9 hours and the company deducts an hour of time off your paid day? I believe the latter resulted in a lawsuit that the company lost. The first example is you costing yourself that hour so the company is not guilty of costing you time.

 

[The Other Side]

Over the years of being a package car driver, I have heard stories of management accusing people of "stealing time." And based on that assupmtion, management was able to proceed in terminating the employee who they deemed guilty of this infraction. At my hub, I usually start at 8:30am. If I worked straight through without taking a lunch from 8:30am till I punch out at 5:30pm, that equals a total of 9 hours. Now being that I didn't take my lunch, I am only going to get paid for eight hours of work.
If I did this for a year (50 weeks) that would amount to 250 hours of time that i actually worked but the company did not pay me for it. If you multiply 250 hours times the approxiamate over time rate of 45 dollars an hour, the total would be $11,250. If you had 100 drivers in your center who did the same thing, the grand total would be $1,125,000.
I believe that most drivers take their lunch. However, there are times when you need to finish your route as soon as possible. You may have to take your son to his baseball game or pick up your mother from the hospital....etc. So you will work all day straight through without taking a break. Is it just me or is it ups "stealing time" from its hourly employees??

I am not sure if I understand your "bigger point" in this post. Are you saying that by employees NOT taking their lunch, this somehow "offsets" other cases where employees are stealing time?

Then you ask a hypothetical where "you" make there decisions during the day, the first- skip your first break, the second-skip your second break, the third-skip your lunch, then you ask if the company is guilty of stealing time?

My question to you is : "Where was the company involved in that scenario?", how would the company be held responsible for decisions "you" clearly made during the day?

As to other scenarios where drivers are terminated for "Stealing time", these are quite tricky. In cases where the company is following a driver and "memorializing" the day via video recorder, these can be hard to defend if the driver is messing around on the route.

Stealing time cases are usually started against drivers who are working 11 to 12 hours and 3 hours in the hole. These are the guys they look to first. Once you know they are showing an interest in you and your business day, you better start working by the book.

Whatever you intended, Please clarify your intention in your post.

Peace.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

The week before Labor Day was a busy one in my center. I got slammed Tuesday-Friday. I took a lunch Tues/Wed/Thurs but did not take one Friday. The 45 minutes was not taken out of my hours worked. I was on vacation the following week and did not feel like sitting somewhere for 45 minutes. The center manager pulled me aside and said it was good to have me back this morning but said nothing about the no lunch.

4.5 hours OT--that was a nice check.

To the OP--what you describe is not stealing time.

 

[over9five]

The center manager pulled me aside and said it was good to have me back this morning .....

C'mon Upstate, that's too much for even me to believe. Where do you work?????

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

C'mon Upstate, that's too much for even me to believe. Where do you work?????

You know where I work. I guess the cover driver had some "issues" last week.

 

[menotyou]

The week before Labor Day was a busy one in my center. I got slammed Tuesday-Friday. I took a lunch Tues/Wed/Thurs but did not take one Friday. The 45 minutes was not taken out of my hours worked. I was on vacation the following week and did not feel like sitting somewhere for 45 minutes. The center manager pulled me aside and said it was good to have me back this morning but said nothing about the no lunch.

4.5 hours OT--that was a nice check.

To the OP--what you describe is not stealing time.

I call BS. And, I might call John T. to tell him he has a rogue manager.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

I call BS. And, I might call John T. to tell him he has a rogue manager.

You can call whatever you want. You can even call someone who cares. You won't find me on the other end of the line.

 

[toonertoo]

The week before Labor Day was a busy one in my center. I got slammed Tuesday-Friday. I took a lunch Tues/Wed/Thurs but did not take one Friday. The 45 minutes was not taken out of my hours worked. I was on vacation the following week and did not feel like sitting somewhere for 45 minutes. The center manager pulled me aside and said it was good to have me back this morning but said nothing about the no lunch.

4.5 hours OT--that was a nice check.

To the OP--what you describe is not stealing time.

4.5 hrs Ot would be nice. Instead of 9 or 10 or more.......after 3 it doesnt make much difference in the take home.

 

[UpstateNYUPSer(Ret)]

4.5 hrs Ot would be nice. Instead of 9 or 10 or more.......after 3 it doesnt make much difference in the take home.

I average less than 2.

I have found that anything more than 5 or 6 goes straight to the government.

 

[menotyou]

You can call whatever you want. You can even call someone who cares. You won't find me on the other end of the line.

Don't like it when someone calls BS on you, do you? You cared enough to send me how many PM's?

 

[YouKnowWhoIam]

Don't like it when someone calls BS on you, do you? You cared enough to send me how many PM's?

Maybe he "likes" you! Wouldn't that be something?!!

 

[brownmonster]

Hold that thought

 

[brownmonster]

I average less than 2.

I have found that anything more than 5 or 6 goes straight to the government.

What is the highest tax rate. 35%? Even at that you would still clear 30$ for each hour of OT.

 

[Bubblehead]

What is the highest tax rate. 35%? Even at that you would still clear 30$ for each hour of OT.

Not to mention the 100% that goes into my 401k.

 

[brett636]

I usually get a little over 10 hours of overtime a week. One week I was allowed to start early and worked an extra 4 hours of overtime, and when I got my paycheck it equaled out to around $15hr. once taxes and deductions came out.

 

[Jackburton]

The only person stealing in this thread is you from your family. Take your lunch FFS, here in Ga we get it take out automatically every day even if we don't put it in. With the recent push towards metrics some management have been escorted off the property in hubs for "shaving" lunches via the payroll system. This is why there are now passwords for each manager so that and edits done to timecards can be traced back to one person. This is also why they are so hard up about making sure every FT driver puts thier lunch in the board equaling one hour as they don't want an edit trace to them to question their integrity.

Long story short, take your lunch, you're the only one that can screw yourself and get away with it.

 

[Bubblehead]

Here, we are required to put in the amount of time we actually take for lunch and are paid accordingly.
If we don't take the full 1/2 hour (that's our contractual increment), we are supposed to get permission from the center manager.
Get caught taking a lunch and not recording it and you will be accused of stealing time.