Archived Flow: Came in at scheduled time, told not to clock in

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We are a 4am-8am store, four trucks a week, average about 2,500 pieces. We have 6 trucks this week, chose to come in on an off day instead of working midnight-8am. When the team arrived to work at 4 we were told to not clock in as the trailer hadn't come yet, it seems that the driver forgot to pick it up?

Anyways, the truck arrived at 5:30, was unloaded by 6:30 and I (and a majority of the team) left at 8 (our secluded time).

I guess my question is, can we be told to come in at a certain time to just wait around and not to clock in?
 
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Just curious did your ETL or TL tell you not to clock in? And did they give them the team a choice of staying in-store or let the team do what ever until the truck arrived? Did you all do any other work before the truck arrived.

If you are locked inside the store during off-hours, I believe you need to be payed. They should have you all zone and replenish, or something while you all waited. Or let you all have the option to the leave the store until the truck arrived.

There were times my store's flow team arrived to have no TL or ETL to let them inside, or the truck was late. They either worked on the zone, or told not to go far from the store (either they went to Waffle House or nearby TMs place to hang out), and they still got paid for those hours.
 
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Our ETL told us to not clock in, she did say that she would let us out/sit in our cars if we wanted. We didn't do any work prior to clocking in at 5:30.

This is the first time I've experienced the truck being late. Also the ETL is new to logistics, only been with us for about a month.
 
At the VERY least, you need to be paid for three hours, even if you only worked 2 1/2. That's company policy, if they send you home under three hours, you still get paid for three (if you go home on your own accord, that's a different story).
 
After break she told us that we needed to stay to work our full four hours, I had an appointment though and couldn't stay. So my leaving (at my scheduled time) was completely voluntary.
 
You get payed for showing up at 4. They should not have told you not to clock in. Speak to your HR because your entire team should be doing punch corrections to get paid for showing up on time. You were at work on time, and you should be payed for that time period.
 
Welcome to The Break Room.

It wasn't you fault the truck didn't show up.
They could have put you to work at other things but to tell you not to clock in is BS.
The ETL was wrong.
If they aren't willing to fix this a call to the hotline really is in order.
 
We have been incredibly tight on hours. We had 8 new hires two weeks ago (I trained each of them and it's annoying me because they are good and I want them to get hours) and they've been rotating on/off because there isn't enough hours to bring them on. My TL has even cut down her own hours so that more of the team could get in. All of a sudden at the huddle yesterday we had enough hours to work a sixth truck with an entire team. I have a feeling that the ETL was trying to save hours this morning to get the truck done whenever it showed up.

Thank you guys for the responses. I'm going to wait to see what my TL says tomorrow. Our HR ETL(?) is relatively new too and so far the track record hasn't been stellar.
 
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Uh, if I'm coming into work at 4AM and told to wait around I'm just going to go home.
 
Our ETL told us to not clock in, she did say that she would let us out/sit in our cars if we wanted. We didn't do any work prior to clocking in at 5:30.

This is the first time I've experienced the truck being late. Also the ETL is new to logistics, only been with us for about a month.

This is where your ETL screwed up.... no, Target does not have to pay you and can tell you not to clock in if they don't need you. They can tell you to go home and forget about work that day.

*However*, they cannot keep you in the store or tell you to wait outside in your car. If they do that, legally you are working. No, you are not doing regular work, but the employer is keeping you around and you are spending time doing that.

Remember, hourly employees are paid for the *time* they give to an employer. A lot of people forget or don't know this. You are not paid for your work - you are paid for your time. By telling you to hang around, you are giving them your time.

They have to pay you.
 
^Thank you. Today when I talked to my TL about it she asked me very specifically if the ETL told us if we could leave or not. We were told to wait, and if we chose to go out of the building and wait we were expected to return when the truck arrived. She didn't say anything about us going home.

HR and the STL weren't there when my shift was over this morning, so I'll either have to see if they are there tomorrow or call the hotline.
 
the store cameras will have a recording of tm's actions in tsc & parking lot during that time, your stl or hr might take a look at that too... did you ask your tl, if you can do a punch correction?
 
I didn't ask about a punch correction, my TL told me to talk to HR or the STL because she didn't know exactly how to handle it/what to tell me. If I would have seen my STL I would have talked to her, hopefully she comes in early tomorrow.

The HR at my store is normally a pain to deal with, I'm usually answered with "use the computer" or "use the red phone."
 
STL says that the ETL was completely within her right and is 100% supportive of her actions. Also that we should be "understanding and thankful for the awesome breakfast" that we got (couple boxes of Pop-Tarts and some orange juice).

I suppose that's as far as I can go with it at my store, guess I'll see about calling the hotline. All of the TL's agree that the ETL was wrong, but they were told that they need to respect the ETLs decisions/authority (this is what my TL told me).
 
STL says that the ETL was completely within her right and is 100% supportive of her actions. Also that we should be "understanding and thankful for the awesome breakfast" that we got (couple boxes of Pop-Tarts and some orange juice).

I suppose that's as far as I can go with it at my store, guess I'll see about calling the hotline. All of the TL's agree that the ETL was wrong, but they were told that they need to respect the ETLs decisions/authority (this is what my TL told me).

I'm sure they slapped the ETL's hand in private and are backing them in public to save face.
They know what happened was very wrong and they could get in trouble for it, they just hope nobody will raise a stink and hope you guys can be bought off with some Pop Tarts.
 
STL says that the ETL was completely within her right and is 100% supportive of her actions. Also that we should be "understanding and thankful for the awesome breakfast" that we got (couple boxes of Pop-Tarts and some orange juice).

I suppose that's as far as I can go with it at my store, guess I'll see about calling the hotline. All of the TL's agree that the ETL was wrong, but they were told that they need to respect the ETLs decisions/authority (this is what my TL told me).
You are in CA..... and they aren't paying you?

(For the record, there is ALWAYS multiple boxes of cereal/pop-tarts in our break room, and milk - so the OJ must have been the special part!!)

I'd call the hotline, CA labor law is pretty specific in certain areas. If we so much as called an employee in to work - we had to pay them 4 hours. If you were not free to leave, and asked to wait, you were working. Period.

Heck, we had employees beg to go salary in our shop, we averaged their wages out and they were happy. The labor board did some routine audit and told us they were not eligible - and we had to pay them at a higher hourly rate because of it. We had totaled up their hours/OT, and averaged it for the year (summer was our crazy season, triple time was common). They didn't care about that - just a flat conversion to an hourly wage on the way back down to hourly.

ANYWAY.....
 
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