Retailer Urban Outfitters is trying to new strategy to staff its fulfillment centers for the holiday season. It’s asking its salaried employees to work weekends. And, since they are already paid a salary, the work comes with the added bonus of no extra pay, but with a free lunch, and transportation (if needed).
Here’s the offending email (via Gawker):
Look, I’m all for team building (Urban Outfitter’s explanation for this idea), but, unless (and maybe even if) the CEO is showing up to pack boxes, this is a horrible idea. It also might violate the FLSA. I could see an argument that by asking salaried, exempt employees to perform a job that is so outside their normal responsibilities that they are being hired to perform a separate non-exempt job, for which they must be paid a minimum wage.Typically, however, an exemption is measured by an employee’s “primary duty”, and the performance of non-exempt, non-primary duties will not convert an exempt employee to a non-exempt employee. Regardless of this policy’s FLSA-legality, let’s all agree that this should be a non-starter from a PR and an HR perspective.
From: URBNcommunity
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 12:01 PM
Subject: A Call For URBN Volunteers!
A Call for URBN Volunteers!
URBN is seeking weekend volunteers to help out at our fulfillment center in Gap, PA. October will be the busiest month yet for the center, and we need additional helping hands to ensure the timely shipment of orders. As a volunteer, you will work side by side with your GFC colleagues to help pick, pack and ship orders for our wholesale and direct customers.
In addition to servicing the needs of our customers, it’s a great way to experience our fulfillment operations first hand. Get your co-workers together for a team building activity!
The Details:
Who: Home Office URBN salaried employees
Where: URBN’s Fulfilment Center - 766 Brackbill Road, Gap, Pennsylvania 17527
What You’ll Be Doing: Pick, pack and prepare packages for shipment(please wear sneakers and comfortable clothing)
When: October 17, 18, 24, 25, and 31 Lunch will be provided
Two shifts each day: 9:00 AM – 3:00PM or 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
(you can volunteer for one or multiple days)
Transportation: If needed, URBN will provide transportation to and from GFC (details provided after sign up)
How: Sign up using this link and we will be in touch with more details. Please do not show up without signing up.
Here’s the rest of what I read this week:
Discrimination
- One big mistake to avoid with disabled employees —Mike Haberman’s Omega HR Solutions
- ADA and accommodating peanut allergies at work — via Eric Meyer’s The Employer Handbook Blog
- HR FUN PUZZLE: Find what the AARP did right with this underperforming employee — via Robin Shea’s Employment & Labor Insider
- Getting ready for ADA website regulations — via Walter Olson’s Overlawyered
- Employee Again Shows Genitals to Co-Workers: Litigation Again Follows — via All in a Day’s Work
- Treatment of Direct Evidence in Age Discrimination Cases Under the ADEA — via Cleveland Employment Law Blog
- If You Work For A Federal Contractor, You Have More Rights Than You Thought You Did. Thanks, Obama! — via Donna Ballman’s Screw You Guys, I’m Going Home
- Full return to work R.I.P. — via Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Disparate Enforcement of Social Media Policy May Support Discrimination Claim — via Technology & Marketing Law Blog
- One Tweet — You’re Out! — via Employment Discrimination Report
- Are police officers’ Facebook postings protected speech? — via Technology for HR
- Employee Fired for Facebook Postings Latest Example for Why Companies Need a Social Media Policy and Plan — via Michigan Employment Law Advisor
- Insider threats to cybersecurity — An HR legal perspective — via Inside Counsel
- People, let’s avoid Peeple like the plague — via Minding the Workplace
- Are You Underpaid? Now There's An App For That — via Workplace Diva
- Cybersecurity – Sometimes The Problem Is You — via Above the Law
- Thank You, Working Mother Magazine. Signed Working Dads. — via Fathers, Work and Family
- Twitter ships employees' breast milk for free — via Business Insider
- Are Workplace Wellness Programs Improving Health, or a Recipe For Overtesting? — via TLNT
- Nearly 40 Percent of Mandatory Reports to OSHA Lead to Inspection — via Currents
- Generation X: Have We Forgotten You? * — via Jonathan Segal at Next Blog
- Your Work From Home Strategy Needs to Be Individual — via Blogging4Jobs
- I don’t want my employees working from home as frequently as they currently do — via Ask a Manager
- Daily Trade Secret Theft for Daily Fantasy Sports? — via Trading Secrets
- FMLA? No, no, no! The employee does NOT get to choose! and Part II — via Marti Cardi’s Matrix Radar
- The FMLA Marriage Penalty: When Spouses Work for the Same Employer — via Jeff Nowak’s FMLA Insights
- More Class Action Litigation for Gig Workers — via Workplace Prof Blog
- Is the Six-Hour Workday the Key to Productivity? — via Evil HR Lady, Suzanne Lucas
- Rounding Time Entries: The High Stakes FLSA Poker Game — via Doug Hass’s The Day Shift
- Nursing Mother’s USDOL Claim Settled — via Wage and Hour Laws Blog
- Sixth Circuit Grants Summary Judgment as to Class, Based on FLSA Agriculture Exemption — via Employment Class Action Blog
- USDOL “Companionship”, “Live-In Domestic” Enforcement Coming — via Wage and Hour Laws Blog
- New Data Confirms Fears about NLRB “Ambush” Election Rule — via Wyatt Employment Law Report
- Charter School Network Challenges NLRB Ruling Allowing Teach for America Members To Unionize — via Workplace Fairness
- It’s been a while since anybody in the White House talked this much about unions — via Wonkblog
- Unions Find Themselves on the Wrong End of ULPs — via Matt Austin Labor Law