A union that’s organizing Waffle Houseworkers filed a petition with the Labor Department on Monday, asking federal officials to investigate the iconic chain’s policy of deducting mandatory meal costs from workers’ paychecks.

Waffle House takes at least $3 for each on-shift meal out of workers’ pay, whether they end up eating it or not, according to the petition from the Union of Southern Service Workers. The USSW called it “especially alarming” since many workers are paid a tipped sub-minimum wage “as low as $2.90 per hour,” not including gratuities.

  • iAmTheTot
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    2418 months ago

    Wage theft in the United States exceeds all theft, burglary, larceny, etc values put together.

    • @xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      958 months ago

      It’s important to keep this in mind whenever retailers decry shoplifters as a source of price increases - the retailers steal more from their employees paychecks than what is stolen from them (and most shrinkage isn’t due to theft anyways).

      It’s also important to keep this in mind whenever asshats like Bezos or Musk talk about eliminating the NLRB.

      • KingJalopy
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        438 months ago

        What shoplifters? I’ve never seen anyone steal anything. And neither have any of you…

        • @some_guy
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          48 months ago

          Depends on the theft. I won’t rat out someone stealing food or baby formula. But I would for sure rat out those group-assaults on premium brands. They smash and break shit unnecessarily and leave chaos for the workers when they’re gone.