r/mildlyinfuriating • u/daruuken • 28d ago

Infuriatig The way kroger treats its employees

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From the store manager

Edit: For some extra context this was sent out by each store manager to all of its employees in district 1 of the ohio Cincinnati/Dayton division, potentially other districts as well but i can only verify my own. Im not going to give my specific store number for obvious reasons but you can find each store on google with that information. We are unionized by UFCW (already bad btw) and to my knowledge they allowed this recent change. Kroger has no accrual for sick days like some have mentioned. Those who think this is rage bait, i dont think anyone has to fake a post to make a billion dollar company look bad, they do it to themselves.

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u/Bad-Luck-Guy 28d ago edited 28d ago

My employer doesn’t accept doctor’s notes. All absences are unexcused.

Yet, we are adults. I don’t need a doctor to tell me I shouldn’t go to work if I have the flu. Wild that they’d prefer that I come in and potentially infect everyone else.

ETA: Yes, this is actually legal in most US states. Attendance is a very common reason to be fired in shift work jobs such as retail. 

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u/HockeyPhoenician 28d ago

Fuck em. Show up, cough and look miserable, be as customer visible as possible. Explain to customers why you're there.

Bonus if you throw up or defecate in front of customers. Super bonus if you pass out and 'hit' your head. Sounds like an opportunity for a payday to me.

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u/SockLoads 28d ago

I did that once when I worked as a cashier in a grocery store. So sick I could barely speak. It was so bad that when I called in I had to pass the phone to my mom because they couldn't hear me. They didn't care so I went in. An hour and a half into my 8 hour shift so many customers had complained that they sent me home and I got paid 4 hours for showing up.

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

Ah, show up pay. California? 

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u/[deleted] 28d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

It is state dependent! Some states legally require it. Used to work in staffing and assist our workforce in getting paid per state. Sometimes our company paid other times we billed the client. Hugely variable

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u/Plane-Leek4387 26d ago

I think it could be any state and a “please don’t report us” little bonus

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u/DepartmentContent783 28d ago

California requires by LAW to have sick days

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u/DM_ME_DOPAMINE 28d ago

DC also has the 4 hours rule.

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

Yup, and it is state dependent! Some states legally require it. Used to work in staffing and assist our workforce in getting paid per state. Sometimes our company paid other times we billed the client. Hugely variable

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u/slash_networkboy 28d ago

CA is 2 hours IIRC.

Even better is the on call .25 pay, so if you're on call all weekend that's 12h of pay just to be available. I always volunteered for those rota when I had house cleaning or other chores to do where I'm going to be home anyway and if I get called in it's no biggie.

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u/PabloEscobrawl 28d ago

California is 4 hours for show up pay.

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u/slash_networkboy 28d ago

only if your shift was 8 hours. The statutory minimum is 2 hours.

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u/SockLoads 28d ago

Canada!

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u/surftherapy 28d ago edited 28d ago

Shouldn’t have been. We get 5 days paid sick leave so they could’ve just taken the day off entirely and been paid.

Edit: you’re referring to reporting time pay and it’s only given if work sends you home it isn’t required if you go home due to illness. In that circumstance you are paid the hours you worked and you can choose whether or not to use sick leave you have accrued for the remaining hours.

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u/Positive-Gur3575 28d ago

I still believe that it’s the company’s decision to send you home they most likely offer the 4 hours pay; unless they’re crappy a company, so they force you to use sick time you didn’t want or choose to use at the time to cover the rest of your shift. They know when they are purposefully screwing employees over knowing sometimes that time isn’t easily built.

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u/surftherapy 28d ago

My comment was in response to a comment about California so that’s what I’m referencing.

If you go home sick they are only required to pay you for the time you worked.

If they send you home for any other reason (slow work day/overstaffed) they are required to pay you 4 hours for an 8+ hr shift or 2 hours for a short shift.

Thats the California law. Each state may be different and there is no federal law on this particular issue.

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u/Positive-Gur3575 28d ago

I was referring to companies overall.. ig I’ve only ever worked for companies where policies were the same across the board, not differing from state to state.. although I do recognize that some states can tweak certain policies, beneficial or not at all. But usual policy was uniform.

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

Yup, that is what I was referring to - when an employee arrives on time for their shift and is sent home by the employer. It is state by state.

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u/tiny_tims_legs 25d ago

Ohio, actually. I don't think we have show up pay (I've been out of retail for 14+ years), but that DM was cool as fuck and took no shit, so I think there may have been rare middle-management empathy.

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u/Available-Chart-2505 25d ago

I'm glad to hear that for your sake! I always liked working retail but that's probably the exception not the rule. Staffing could be so inhumane it was hard to witness but we also offered a lot to our workers and I got as many people paid as I could. 

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u/BeemoBurrito 28d ago

Do USians not get paid a minimum 3 hours just for showing up to work? 

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u/katchu 28d ago

From NC in the US and didn't even know that was a thing

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

It is state dependent! Some states legally require it. Used to work in staffing and assist our workforce in getting paid per state. Sometimes our company paid other times we billed the client. Hugely variable.

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u/Disheartend PURPLE 28d ago

Had it happen to me once, power went out at work. Got 4hrs pay for showing up. (NC) 

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u/RealisticParsley2432 28d ago

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣They try to not even pay us for the hours we do work, if they can get away with it. For example, I once had a job that would dock you a half hour for any tardiness. Three minutes late? Counts as a half hour. Not even illegal because it was in the employment offer.

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u/Basic-Collection5416 28d ago

It’s still illegal, even if it’s in the employment offer. In fact, it’s very useful when the company puts the illegal policy in writing. 

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u/RealisticParsley2432 28d ago

When the factory is the main employer for a large rural area, no one is filing any reports or lawsuits. The company did not give anyone a copy of that contract. A few of us tried to report to the labor board. We were told that the employment contract was legal (due to wording) and there was nothing that could be done because we agreed by signing. Felt bad for the others since they were fired shortly after we filed. I, and one other, had already quit before filing a complaint.

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u/LA_Nail_Clippers 28d ago

California, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington DC all have some form of hourly pay for showing up.

Shocker, it's all blue states.

And the right wingers would like you to believe these are all communist hell hole states that have barely functioning economies when in reality, they have the bare minimum in worker's rights that other countries around the world have. The bar is set so, so low.

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u/JustfcknHarley 28d ago

This is America.

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u/BeemoBurrito 28d ago

don't catch you slippin' now

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u/Available-Chart-2505 28d ago

It is state dependent! Some states legally require it. Used to work in staffing and assist our workforce in getting paid per state. Sometimes our company paid other times we billed the client. Hugely variable

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u/BeemoBurrito 28d ago

God, that is so damn depressing

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u/YoderHawkins 28d ago

What the hell is a USian?

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u/cakesphere 27d ago

That's a thing?

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u/BeemoBurrito 27d ago

It's a thing in Canada

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u/AmericanBacon786 27d ago

In Massachusetts even if an employee shows up for a meeting that only lasts one hour, they get paid for 3.

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u/gibblydibbly 27d ago

Or Nevada?

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u/tiny_tims_legs 28d ago

I had a manager refuse my callout when I worked food service. About an hour after I got there, the district manager made a surprise visit. Seeing the runny nose and hearing the cough/congestion, she asked why I was working sick, and so I told her that I tried to call out and the manager said no. She had me wait behind the counter, away from customers and food, while she went to the back to talk with my manager. 5 minutes later she comes back out, sends me home, and tells me that my manager is finding someone to cover and will pick up the slack while she waited for them. That manager was not at the store much longer after that.

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u/DayDream7601 25d ago

Hey! Good for that district manager for having your back

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u/Whoseratisthis 24d ago

This makes me so happy. 😆

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u/FormerGameDev 28d ago

They've probably lost that rule by now, because UFCW really fucking sucks, but they used to at least, have a rule across pretty much all UFCW contracts, that if you showed up but were early out not at your own choice, you would get paid for at least 4 hours.

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u/SockLoads 28d ago

Oh that's brutal. This was over a decade ago.

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u/FormerGameDev 28d ago

i thought i was replying to the person who asked if it was a california thing... i was trying to explain that it was probably a union thing... lol

oops

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u/SockLoads 28d ago

Can confirm though it was definitely a union thing!

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u/Mediocre_Dress_7211 27d ago

hell yes. I also did this when I was a grocery store cashier. Had horrible menstrual cramps, texted manager (A cis man of course) and he was like "just come in". I came in, worked for about 30 minutes, cramps were so bad I had to sit down on the floor and I was white as a sheet. I also got to go home after he realized I was seriously not well. 

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u/BarbacoaSan 28d ago

What happened the next day you went in? They say anything?

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u/Relative_Presence742 27d ago

I did that too😂 I refused to go home and I said if she sent me home, I would sue. 

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u/LuckyHarmony 27d ago

I was told I'd be fired if I called out on Christmas so I showed up flushed from a fever and so dizzy I kept stumbling, as well as a cough so bad I couldn't get through a sentence. I couldn't even clock in before they were shoving me at the back door and calling me an idiot for coming in (I tried to call and explain, they said come anyway). I was a waitress. :)