Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Just looking for some advice from the knowledgable people of CD. My sister started working at a national coffee & donut chain (Florida) about two months ago. She likes the job and the people she works with—that's not the problem. The manager is withholding her tips until she completes 6 hours of online training. This training is unpaid and they do not provide a computer nor schedule time for her to complete this training. She does not own a computer, so she has to go to the library, but they only let patrons use the computers for 1 hour per visit. This has been preventing her from completing the training and receiving her tip money.
My questions are:
Is it legal for the employer to require training, which is unpaid, and expect the employee to complete it on their own time, using their own computer?
Is it legal for the employer to withhold an employees tips?
My sister is doing her best to start over as a single working mom after a terrible breakup. I've offered to mail her a computer she can use, but this whole thing seems odd to me.
Just looking for some advice from the knowledgable people of CD. My sister started working at a national coffee & donut chain (Florida) about two months ago. She likes the job and the people she works with—that's not the problem. The manager is withholding her tips until she completes 6 hours of online training. This training is unpaid and they do not provide a computer nor schedule time for her to complete this training. She does not own a computer, so she has to go to the library, but they only let patrons use the computers for 1 hour per visit. This has been preventing her from completing the training and receiving her tip money.
My questions are:
Is it legal for the employer to require training, which is unpaid, and expect the employee to complete it on their own time, using their own computer?
Is it legal for the employer to withhold an employees tips?
My sister is doing her best to start over as a single working mom after a terrible breakup. I've offered to mail her a computer she can use, but this whole thing seems odd to me.
Thanks for your help!
Generally speaking, they cannot withold tips. Starbucks got popped in major class action a while back for witholding "pooled" tips and that sounds very similar.
The training part can vary by state and what is being required. If it is employer-specific and mandated that should be paid time and they likely cannot take punitive action. If it is for, lets say, a food-handlers permit and her employment is contingent upon posession of a valid permit - they are not required to pay for the time it takes to complete this.
My sister is doing her best to start over as a single working mom after a terrible breakup. I've offered to mail her a computer she can use, but this whole thing seems odd to me.
What's the goal here? Do be right but unemployed or to put up with this and remain employed?
Coffee shop workers are dime a dozen, if she makes any kind of big deal out of this then she's out and back in the unemployment line.
It is *possible* that the manager may not withhold the tips, but without knowledge of the state laws and the exact contract she signed there's no way to know. Is this really worth spending money and time on to figure out or would it be simpler to just get the training done and move on?
I find it hard to imagine that there isn't an Internet cafe type of establishment in the town your sister lives in where she can just go and pay to rent a computer for a few hours. Likewise there are probably small businesses that are online or multiplayer game shops. She can go there and the geeks will probably let her use a computer for free to do her training while they play Call of Duty or whatever other nonsense they spend their time with these days.
Other options are women's shelters, friends, neighbors, or heck, even Kinko's (where you do have to pay for computer use).
Just looking for some advice from the knowledgable people of CD. My sister started working at a national coffee & donut chain (Florida) about two months ago. She likes the job and the people she works with—that's not the problem. The manager is withholding her tips until she completes 6 hours of online training. This training is unpaid and they do not provide a computer nor schedule time for her to complete this training. She does not own a computer, so she has to go to the library, but they only let patrons use the computers for 1 hour per visit. This has been preventing her from completing the training and receiving her tip money.
My questions are:
Is it legal for the employer to require training, which is unpaid, and expect the employee to complete it on their own time, using their own computer?
Is it legal for the employer to withhold an employees tips?
My sister is doing her best to start over as a single working mom after a terrible breakup. I've offered to mail her a computer she can use, but this whole thing seems odd to me.
Tell her to find another job unless it's a career. If they have a crazy rule like that which sounds illegal it can only get worse. Is that requirement on paper? If so do the training and then contact the labor board. I would think if they are with holding funds she should be due interest.
Thank you so much to everyone who provided helpful info (RoadWarrior12, raijen, joe from dayton, RarelyRelocating, Caltovegas). This is exactly why I like this site so much. I'm sending her an older iMac I have, so she'll be able to finish the training, I was just perplexed by the situation—it doesn't seem right to me. Although, I'm sure people deal with this (and much worse) in these types of jobs all the time. She doesn't have any complaints at all though—she loves the work.
raijen—Thank you for your *extremely* kind offer. She is significantly farther south of Tampa though.
RarelyRelocating—She doesn't have a car and lives in an area of Florida that doesn't have Internet cafes or Kinkos. Believe me, I know… I just got back from visiting. She walks or rides her bike to get everywhere.
To the critics here, I just want to explain… My sister used to be a concert violinist—she is extremely talented. Unfortunately, she has been in an abusive relationship for almost 20 years… and when I say abusive, I'm talking metal plates in her legs, abusive. She is out of that now though, and trying to start over, which is harder than you would think at 40+ years old.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
