Last minute schedule changes

[OutOfTheKnow]

Is it legal? Policy states that schedule changes must be made with at least 24 hours notice, but it also states they can cut your hours completely for the day with at least 1 hour notice. I'm a midday, 11-2000 more or less, sometimes 1000 start sometimes earlier. But for 6 months, and ESPECIALLY the past month, they call me off for 3 or 4 hours, 2 hours before my scheduled start time, 3 or 4 days every week. It used to be just me, but now it's all the middays, though I still get pushed back the most. Thoughts on legality? I understand volume is light, but that doesn't change that I'm scheduled and then they change the schedule when I could potentially work a second job during those hours. I do get my minimum hours.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Don't answer any texts or phone calls from management. You are allowed to punch in at your scheduled time if they haven't notified you by the end of your previous shift. This is policy. Also if you punch in and they send you home you are entitled to report in pay. Half of your scheduled shift.

 

[OutOfTheKnow]

Don't answer any texts or phone calls from management. You are allowed to punch in at your scheduled time if they haven't notified you by the end of your previous shift. This is policy. Also if you punch in and they send you home you are entitled to report in pay. Half of your scheduled shift.

So if I punch in at my scheduled time, they can't send me home for an hour after I punch in, am I correct? They need me to cover pickups, so going home would only mean coming back later. But I like the idea if I get an extra hour on the front end, or even force them to find work for me.

 

[OutOfTheKnow]

FYI our senior works out of our station and micromanages our operations. He's essentially the ops manager and is a real hard ass. The "ops managers" are really glorified supervisors.

 

[Operational needs]

So if I punch in at my scheduled time, they can't send me home for an hour after I punch in, am I correct? They need me to cover pickups, so going home would only mean coming back later. But I like the idea if I get an extra hour on the front end, or even force them to find work for me.

No. Once you punch in, they have to either pay you show up time or find work for you to do.

Go find the policy and read it. Make sure you understand it. Hold on to a copy and every time they try to pull this crap, show it to them. They hate for people to throw policy at them. They want to keep you dumb.

 

[dex 84]

If you're part time then you're guaranteed at least 2 hours if you report to work at your scheduled time. If you're full time then it's 4 hours.

The best thing to do is follow the schedule. Unless they tell you before you leave work on Monday, assume no changes for Tuesday, etc.

You might get some initial pushback on this because they're used to stringing you around. Be ready to stand firm, and make sure you dot your T's and cross your I's while the situation is still volatile. If you're going to hold them to the letter of the law on this you need to make sure you're not doing something else that they can hit you for.

 

[bacha29]

So if I punch in at my scheduled time, they can't send me home for an hour after I punch in, am I correct? They need me to cover pickups, so going home would only mean coming back later. But I like the idea if I get an extra hour on the front end, or even force them to find work for me.

Pal keep one thing in mind. You are an "at will" employee without the benefit of a binding union contract. You may have so called a company "policy" but it doesn't mean a thing and it's interpretation and application is based on whatever best serves the company's interests at that given moment.

 

[Oldfart]

Freight is lite at your station or is it overstaffed? You might win the battle but in the end, you just might lose the war. You start throwing policy books in anyone's face, like someone suggested, you better not be doing anything else to raise a red flag.

 

[Operational needs]

Freight is lite at your station or is it overstaffed? You might win the battle but in the end, you just might lose the war. You start throwing policy books in anyone's face, like someone suggested, you better not be doing anything else to raise a red flag.

Whether freight is light or his station overstaffed, is not his problem. It doesn't take long throwing policy in their face to get them to back off. I know, I've been fighting the fight for many years, and I'm left alone. He should be doing the right thing anyway. If he's not, too bad for him.

 

[dex 84]

Freight is lite at your station or is it overstaffed? You might win the battle but in the end, you just might lose the war. You start throwing policy books in anyone's face, like someone suggested, you better not be doing anything else to raise a red flag.

He can't keep letting them change his start time right before his shift starts though. That's no way to live. This job isn't worth that. It's not too much to ask to go to bed each night knowing what time you need to be at work the next day.

 

[Purplepackage]

Freight is lite at your station or is it overstaffed? You might win the battle but in the end, you just might lose the war. You start throwing policy books in anyone's face, like someone suggested, you better not be doing anything else to raise a red flag.

By "freight is light" his manager actually means they are giving his p2 to the other routes to cut hours and look good before Christmas

 

[Oldfart]

Did you ever consider the quality of his work could be an issue? I know we have workers that it is almost easier to eat the lates than to take their offer to help. You give them 10 stops to save service and they still have lates and take 90 minutes to get them off. It might not be that way with him, but if purpleman is right, maybe they are giving his freight away for a good reason. If giving his freight to other routes cuts hours, maybe they are paying FT people the minimum and decided to give them more stops to work them the minimum. We rarely have a "lite" package situation at our station so we never have a shortage of stops. Hours are there for everyone and then some. It would suck getting your start time moved around but there also could be more to the story.

 

[bacha29]

Did you ever consider the quality of his work could be an issue? I know we have workers that it is almost easier to eat the lates than to take their offer to help. You give them 10 stops to save service and they still have lates and take 90 minutes to get them off. It might not be that way with him, but if purpleman is right, maybe they are giving his freight away for a good reason. If giving his freight to other routes cuts hours, maybe they are paying FT people the minimum and decided to give them more stops to work them the minimum. We rarely have a "lite" package situation at our station so we never have a shortage of stops. Hours are there for everyone and then some. It would suck getting your start time moved around but there also could be more to the story.

Try as you might but you will never succeed in your efforts to fill these people with the same self doubt that you have been so generously blessed with. Those people know who they are , what they're there for and how to do it and unlike yourself they don't entrust their entire faith and judgement to somebody who happen to call themselves a "manager"or passively allow themselves to be totally subjugated to the absolute will of that company in the appalling shameless manner that you have clearly demonstrated.

 

[59 Dano]

Be ready to stand firm, and make sure you dot your T's and cross your I's while the situation is still volatile.

Even better, do the opposite!

If you're going to hold them to the letter of the law on this you need to make sure you're not doing something else that they can hit you for.

Yup.

Also, anytime you're going to go nose-to-nose about an issue, make sure you have your ducks in a row. Then make sure again. The last thing you want to do is to dig in only to realize that you misinterpreted a policy, didn't have whatever info you needed, accidentally painted yourself into a corner, or something like that. Take your time and be thorough before you pull the trigger on an issue.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Even better, do the opposite!



Yup.

Also, anytime you're going to go nose-to-nose about an issue, make sure you have your ducks in a row. Then make sure again. The last thing you want to do is to dig in only to realize that you misinterpreted a policy, didn't have whatever info you needed, accidentally painted yourself into a corner, or something like that. Take your time and be thorough before you pull the trigger on an issue.

I noticed you didn't say what the policy was.

 

[Purplepackage]

Did you ever consider the quality of his work could be an issue? I know we have workers that it is almost easier to eat the lates than to take their offer to help. You give them 10 stops to save service and they still have lates and take 90 minutes to get them off. It might not be that way with him, but if purpleman is right, maybe they are giving his freight away for a good reason. If giving his freight to other routes cuts hours, maybe they are paying FT people the minimum and decided to give them more stops to work them the minimum. We rarely have a "lite" package situation at our station so we never have a shortage of stops. Hours are there for everyone and then some. It would suck getting your start time moved around but there also could be more to the story.

You must work at the busiest express station in the United States

 

[bacha29]

I noticed you didn't say what the policy was.

That's the entire point. The policy it's interpretation and it's application is whatever X says it is at the moment because there is no representative party present to challenge X in behalf of the worker. It's so one sided that it's no use. Even if you got them on a specific piece of policy language they simply change it. This practice was and is used flagrantly at Ground where the so called "operating agreement" was constantly amended reinterpreted or flat out ignored to the point where it provided absolutely no protection for the contractor or the money he had invested.

 

[Oldfart]

You must work at the busiest express station in the United States

Freight is plentiful and all the overtime you want. Been that way for as long as I can remember. No fulltimer works the minimum and partimers work as much as they want. We stay lean on people and overtime is never frowned upon. If you don't get enough M-friend, you can work any Saturday you want. Only half of our Saturday routes are covered by T-S people. About 15 more are covered by people on their 6th day. I don't work Saturdays but many people work nearly every one.

 

[59 Dano]

I noticed you didn't say what the policy was.

I noticed that no one asked me.

 

[MAKAVELI]

I noticed that no one asked me.

What's the policy on schedule changes?