Help me out with this job situation

Sno.

Sno.

Active member
So I had a job, a part-time second job a couple of nights a week. Basically the job sucked.

It was fun in theory, but the owner treated all of the girls hired like shit. He'd boss

us around in a berating manner. At first required us to wear a minimum of 3 inch heels,

which after the first night of agonizing blisters was changed to 2.5! He, along with his

managers would belittle us in front of customers, refer to us by knick names (ie: one

of the girls named heidi, he called 'heidi-ho', or sometimes just 'ho'). They required us

to come in two nights a week for four hours at a time to practice, but we didn't get paid

for it. Yet, it was a requirement to keep our job, which im almost 100% positive is illegal.

Well, I brought up my concerns with one of the female managers last week after my shift. I

haven't worked since (i usually work tue/wed, and have practice mon/thu), so nothing has

happened since, but I got a phone call an hour before practice yesterday that simply said

"I'm sorry, we're going to have to let you go". When I asked why, they said "because I had

a bad attitude".

How would you deal with this situation? Would you just let it go?

For the first month that I was employed there I wasn't paid a dime. I'd come to practice

three times a week, and they wanted me to learn certain things before I actually worked a

shift. So I worked a month for free, AND then continued to work 2 nights a week for free.

I had to buy over 100.00 in clothing because they required us to wear a certain thing, yet

didn't provide us with uniforms.

I'm just thinking about telling them they need to pay me for all of the "practice" time that

I worked where I wasn't paid.

What would you guys do? Let it go, or try to get some restitution? I had been letting it

slide that we weren't getting paid to practice because we were promised major pay for shows

we would be doing in the future, but I was fired before I got to work them, so all of that

donated time for nothing!

cliff notes: job screwed me. try to get money, or let it go?
 
Oh, and it even says in the employee manual that they gave us:

"the parlor vixens are a group of women who are to hold these three traits"

-skill

-personality

-looks: so let your hair down, put on your heels, and lets shoot some pool"

is that shit illegal? I don't know.
 
damn. thats an interesting job.

but to your question. its a toughy. it sucks just letting hard work "go to waste". maybe do some research online for state laws with employment. find out when they have to pay you, if training is paid, clothing, etc. if you find anything that might be remotely worth going after, or even if you dont, look into talking to a lawyer. some lawyers will do a first conference for free, others usually dont charge too much for the first consultation. give them the situation, show them that you've done some work on your own to make them interested instead of blowing off your case, and then go from there. as said before, it sucks just letting hard work "go to waste", but if you do go to court, its going to be a long and painful/annoying process, and the time spent, you might not get much back. you're also going to need witnesses/evidence of the circumstances, so if you're friends or atleast talk to the women there, if they can back you up then maybe something serious can result. but it will take time and a lot of effort.
 
so wait? thats what is written and you take the paycheck from there and now you want to ask if it is legal? Looking for a free hand out over and above actually working for it, are ya?
 
Didn't you have a job at Under Armor? Or am I confusing you with someone else.

Anyway, I'd definitely say something. I'd have a chat with the manager stating that they owe you money. If he refuses then I'm sure that the police or some sort of lawyer would love to hear from you.

The guy sounds like he has it coming to him.
 
you didn't read the thread. I'm not asking for money over and above the hours i actually worked. I was asking if that was illegal, because I wanted to know.

Perhaps I could say "you owe me money for these hours i worked" and if he says "no" i say "look, this is illegal, i could nail you, but im not going to, if you pay me for the hours i worked"
 
yeah, i don't want to go through the court process, I don't think that it's worth it, and it would most likely end up costing me money. I just wanted to know if you would just let it go, or if you'd try and bring it up with them. Like when I collect my last paycheck, should I be like "yo, you fired me illegally because I complained about sexual harassment, you made me work hours without paying me illegally, pay me for my time, or we're going to have a situation on our hands" or something.
 
at will employment.. they were up front that you would have to "give a little" to get a little, you don't have a case IMO
 
that's not the way it works. There's a law that says you have to pay employees for all hours worked, and all required training. The reason they have this law, is because if they didn't employers could get away with telling employees they needed to participate in free work or they'd lose their job, and the employee would do it out of fear of losing their job. That's why the law exists, to make things fair for the employees. They just don't happen to be following the law, because we get paid 25.00/hr, and they want to pay us for as little as possible.

This was our schedule:

Mon: practice: 7pm-11pm

Tue: work 8pm-11pm

wed: work 8pm-11pm

Thu: practice: 7pm-11pm

Sat: practice 1pm-4pm

so we'd work a total of 17 hrs a week, but only get paid for 6.
 
im not sure if its a law that they have to pay for training...i mean, ive been paid in the past for my time training, but im not sure if its an actual law, just because you're not reeeeally working, kinda getting there, but i dunno. google it for your state and see what it comes up with.
 
this is what washington state law says:

What does "hours worked" mean?

"Hours worked" means all hours during which the worker is authorized or required by the business to be on the premises or at a prescribed work place. This could include travel time, training and meeting time, wait time, on-call time, and time for putting on and taking off uniforms, and also may include meal periods.

Workers must be paid for all "hours worked," which includes time they are required to be on the premises at the employer's request.

 
It's a grey area IMO.. they were up front that you would have to practice and that you would not get paid for it. Its another thing if you are hired and then go to training.. You can try though. They probably wil pay you just to keep out of trouble.
 
http://www.lni.wa.gov/

this will have all the info you need on any of this, some of is quite borderline, but with certain phrasing it may not be illegal, I would check up though, you may have a case.

What billiards place btw? in seattle?
 
Realistically your going to want to contact an attorney if you plan on getting anywhere. Your employer isn't really going to take you seriously without an attorney on your side. He's probably got an attorney on retainer who could pull out any number of legal tricks to get this thrown out before you make it very far on your own. It will be much harder to do if you've got a lawyer working for you. Most attorneys will give you a free consultation to see if you have grounds to proceed. You sound like you may have some grounds for a claim.
 
I also found this:



If required clothing is of a common color

• Tops: white, tan, and blue (including light and dark variations of those colors).

• Bottoms: tan, black, blue, and gray (including light and dark variations of those colors).

If the required clothing is any color

and conforms to a general dress code or style, the employer is not responsible for the cost. Only the following are considered common colors: other than those above, the employer must provide or compensate the employee for the apparel.

So apparently they owe me for the money I spent on Red dressy tops. I think what I'm going to do, is confront them about it when I receive my last paycheck. If they pay me because they know I'm in the right, cool. If they say "get a lawyer", I'mma be like "you guys are soulless" and do nothing.

 
That's good input. I do have a family lawyer that would probably give me advice for free. I'll shoot her an email
 
The Parlor

downtown bellevue. The root of all evil.

I'm not just saying that because I'm a woman scorned, they have terrible customer service, outrageous prices, a stupid dress code, and they think they're the best thing to happen to the city.
 
Where are you getting all this information from? Talk to someone at the labour board and see what they say.
 
In the states L&I is the equivalent to what I assume you are talking about with the labour board which I am guessing is Canada's labor protection system. most this info is based of that and washington state laws.

side note, the Parlor in the Lincon Town Square top floor is it?
 
Your best bet is to talk to a lawyer or someone on the labor board. It seems to me that you might have a case with the practice time, but then again its a gray area because we don't know what was actually said and promised to you with the job. No one here is going to be able to help you with specifics without all of the documentation of the emplyment and whatnot.

You might want to try going back to the place and asking them what the deal was with the practice time and why you didn't get paid. They could say it was part of the contract\deal or they could give you some bs answer but atleast you know their position and then you can make a more informed decision.

That is the best advice I could give you.
 
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