Time Theft in the Los Angeles Retail Sector: The Need for New Labor Standards and a Fair Workweek

2021 ◽  
pp. 0160449X2110336
Author(s):  
Preeti Sharma ◽  
Lina Stepick ◽  
Janna Shadduck-Hernández ◽  
Saba Waheed
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Labor Policy ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Retail Sector ◽  
Clock Time ◽  
Time Theft ◽  
Retail Workers

We argue that employers subject workers to time theft by controlling workers’ time—both on and off the clock. Time theft considers employer control of workers’ time without the promise of pay through unstable scheduling practices as well as beyond their scheduled work hours. We develop a typology of time theft through a discussion of survey and workshop data with retail workers in Los Angeles. We underscore how federal labor law is inadequate to address unstable scheduling and we discuss retail worker organizing and the implications of time theft for labor policy and worker movements.

BYOD Policies as a Negotiable Control Lever . . . or Not

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keri K. Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Mobile Device ◽  
Labor Law ◽  
Consumer Products ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
Bring Your Own Device ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Global Challenges ◽  
Device Use ◽  
Control Lever

Enterprise consumerization describes how technologies purchased by “enterprises” (i.e., organizations or companies) became consumer products. Mobile devices fall into this category because, as they became more affordable, individuals purchased them and brought them to work. As this trend proliferated, organizations had to protect their proprietary data, but their employees were clamoring for access to Wi-Fi. Their response: create bring-your-own-device-to-work (BYOD) policies. This chapter discusses human resources and global challenges surrounding BYOD policies. There are labor-law concerns at play, as well as national declarations that restrict mobile-device use outside of work hours. Furthermore, there’s still ongoing debate concerning who should be “allowed” to participate in BYOD. Readers are invited to consider that these policies have introduced a form of free control: individuals have flexibility in choosing their devices, but that freedom is also how people voluntarily participate in being controlled by organizations.

Lousy Jobs, Invisible Unions: The Mexican Retail Sector in the Age of Globalization

2006 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Tilly ◽  
José Luis Álvarez Galván
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Retail Sector ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Union Coverage ◽  
Dominant Retailer ◽  
Retail Workers

Globalization and modernization transformed the Mexican retail sector over the last two decades. One result is that Wal-Mart has become Mexico's dominant retailer. Another is the poor quality of jobs in the Mexican retail sector. Drawing on a variety of data sources, we review changes and current patterns in the characteristics and quality of retail jobs in Mexico. Retail jobs are worse than the Mexican average. Union coverage is widespread but offers little benefit to workers. Unlike the case in the United States, Wal-Mart offers unionized jobs very similar in quality to those of other retailers; indeed, in general we find little difference between the jobs of global and domestic Mexican retailers. Globalization and modernization have left Mexican retail workers with lousy jobs and invisible unions.

Resistance in Retail

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lane Windham
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Department Store ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Labor Standards ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Union Organizing ◽  
Labor Activism ◽  
Retail Workers

This chapter features a successful union organizing effort among 5300 women and men at the Woodward & Lothrop department store in Washington, DC. It explores retail workers’ demands for unions and economic security, even as the retail industry’s labor standards declined, and highlights 1970s labor activism among female, young and African-American workers. Newly uncovered anti-union lawyer’s documents reveal employers’ union busting tactics in retail.

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