Some really rich stories. First the light one:
A former Florida police officer wants the city to pay him the time it took him to get dressed for work.
…Weissberg claims that he was “required to work approximately 30 minutes off-the-clock” prior to his shift officially starting, the report said. The time amounted to about 5-10 hours overtime each week or more than $17,000, he claims. These tasks reportedly included maintaining his weapon and his police car.
Cry me a fucking river! It takes me two hours every day to go to and return from work if I catch the trains right. I don’t get paid for that. Back when I worked as a fisheries observer I had to pack for two weeks of work, and maintain gear that routinely got exposed to salt water. You don’t get paid for that crap, its part of the job, and you factor it into your pay.
During my brief stint as a commercial SCUBA diver, I was instructed by the other pros to set my hourly rate and minimum pay to compensate for the fact that I would have to pack, unpack, don, and maintain my SCUBA gear away from the client. I didn’t bill them for that time directly, I just made sure by the time I was home and my gear was stowed, I was happy with my pay.
In the end I didn’t like the hassle of the job, so I stopped soliciting clients and only got wet for friends and steady employers, who I know would appreciate the extra favors. I also chose to eat the time it took to deal with my gear because I would get it back in less stressful work.
If you don’t like being a cop, do something else.
Now more serious:
Police officers in a Central California town took part in a scheme in which cars belonging to poor Hispanic people were impounded, towed and later sold or given away for free to some officers when the car owners couldn’t pay the fees, authorities said Tuesday.
Four King City officers — including the recently retired police chief and the acting chief — have been arrested in the scheme, and two others were also arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said.
Who do you call when the people stealing from you are the cops? Super classy!
Who do you call when the people stealing from you are the cops?
I imagine the cops were thinking the same thing…along with “probably illegals so they won’t report it” so they thought they’d get away with it.
I should be paid for every 24 hour period! All that other stuff I do is just me keeping up with being able to go to work, after all!
A former Florida police officer wants the city to pay him the time it took him to get dressed for work.
Wait a minute; Cops are never off duty ! That is why they get so many special privileges like being able to ignore prohibitions against carrying a firearm. That is why cops working as Security guards can arrest people !
So basically the guy is complaining he isn’t getting paid enough for getting dressed !
Man that’s a good point! In states with carry prohibitions, often the badge exempts them from those rules, even when they’re off duty. And yep they can still arrest, and assist in cop duties.
Great point!
I once had a gig where I got to bill one hour of a total round trip commute of three to four hours (depending on traffic) and got reimbursed mileage for the calculated drive from my local office to my DC office and back three days a week, even though I drove to and from my house (which meant the first 20 miles or so of each commute were solely on my dime).
But the contract for that program was written specifically that way, so I would bill (and be paid) on the local cost of living scale, and not the metro DC scale. You see, “travel allowance expences” came out of a different pot of money than “salary” on that contract. . . (Also, becuase the gig was that I was supposed to be a “local” representative “filling in” at the desk at the design site. They didn’t want a “DC based” guy who never touched base with the local guys and would get sucked into the Uptown Hive Mind.)
And it was cheaper for the client — I sat down and estimated that had we billed it as straight time and no billed mileage, the financials alone would have cost them an extra couple thousand, and the minor allowance of allowing me to leave an hour early (which, with careful scheduling to avoid the worst of morning rush hour and skipping a lunch break, meant I could almost completely miss the evening rush hour) equated to about $6K a year worth of value to me (including mileage).
Two things:
1. I’m not sure I understand the indignation over the Florida police officer story. I haven’t earned my Internet GED in law yet. But the way I understand employment law, if you are an hourly employee (as opposed to salaried or contract), your employer expects you to be ready to go at a certain time, and there’s time required before Time T to get ready, your employer does have to compensate you for that time. Doesn’t matter if you’re a cop, or a waitress that has to get dressed at the restaurant, or a tech support guy who needs to review emails before the phones go live; if you’re working, they have to pay you, and that is part of working.
2. With respect to the cops in King City, Weer’d, I think you missed the best part: one of them is actually being charged with possession of an assault weapon. “Criminal complaints accuse Andrade of possessing a semiautomatic Colt AR-15 and storing it in a manner in which ‘a child was likely to gain access to it.'”. So there’s not an “only ones” exemption for cops in California?
3. Okay, I lied, but I just found out about this: the Feds have also indicted five San Francisco PD officers.
Good point! I recently read that McDonald’s just had a nation wide policy that all employees must be properly dressed BEFORE they sign in. So if you don’t come to work in you shitty brown Polo, you need to change in the employee area before you punch in for your shift.
And I suspect cops are held to a HIGHER standard than your average fry chef and toilet scrubber!
Dwight,
The cops aren’t hourly employees, they are salary positions as I understand it. The requirement to pay for dressing applies if the required uniform is not something people have access to outside of the job; e.g. you can’t take home your Hazmat suit every evening.
Most jobs have a “show up ready to work” at X time requirement. Be it hourly or salary; that is just part of the requirements. Payment for that time is generally not required.
The cop in Florida has offsetting benefits in addition to his pay (see my earlier comment about never being off duty)
The city, for instance, allows a police officer to take their car home as part of their contract,” Mayor Phillip Stoddard told the paper. “The city provides them with uniforms as part of their contract.
The city lets them take the cars home and they do maintenance as part of that great deal. I would jump at a chance not to burn my gas, put wear and tear on my car.
“Roll call is supposed to start on time,” Weissberg. “It took anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes to get ready for the shift. It would be physically impossible to show up at 2 p.m. for a 2 p.m. roll call and be able to do all the steps.”
How is this any different from people having to get dressed at home before showing up for work?
I wonder if he is going to bill them for the time it takes to shave, to comb his hair and brush his teeth.