PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH SQUEEZES LABOR
or
GREEDY CAPITALIST PIGS DRINK WORKERS' BLOOD part two

A few weeks ago I linked to an article from the Los Angeles Times about how the productivity growth of the last few years seems to be literally coming at the expense of employed workers. This New York Times article reprinted in the Houston Chronicle appears to bolster that claim:

More employers doctoring time records, experts say

Experts on compensation say that the illegal doctoring of hourly employees' time records is far more prevalent than most Americans believe. The practice, commonly called shaving time, is easily done and hard to detect -- a simple matter of computer keystrokes -- and has spurred a growing number of lawsuits and settlements against a wide range of businesses.

Workers have sued Family Dollar and Pep Boys, the auto parts and repair chain, accusing managers of deleting hours. A jury found that Taco Bell managers in Oregon had routinely erased workers' time. More than a dozen former Wal-Mart employees said in interviews and depositions that managers had altered time records to shortchange employees.

The Department of Labor recently reached two back-pay settlements with Kinko's, totaling $56,600, after finding that managers in Ithaca, N.Y., and Hyannis, Mass., had erased time for 13 employees.

"There are a lot of incentives for store managers to cut costs in illegal ways," said David Lewin, a professor of management who teaches a course on compensation at the University of California, Los Angeles. "You hope that would be contrary to company practices, but sometimes these practices become so ingrained that they become the dominant practice."

And here's the kicker:

Compensation experts say that many managers, whether at discount stores or fast-food restaurants, fear losing their jobs if they fail to keep costs down.

Not only are low level employees getting ripped off, their managers are being essentially coerced into doing it. I don't even really know what to say about this. The one thing that comes to mind is that this is pretty sick, but I guess that's obvious to anybody who isn't a Republican. As I've said before, things in this country are getting worse, not better. Want four more years of Bush? Better be ready for four more years of the American slide toward third world status.

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