Despite what its runway shows might suggest, Victoria’s Secret is no angel... at least not in the eyes of its employees. Buzzfeed News reports that the company is currently being sued by former employee Mayra Casas, who is none too pleased with the company’s work shift scheduling practices.
Like many other employees working for companies that force their laborers to be available to work shifts they often don’t end up being needed for, Casas felt stuck. When on-call workers don’t end up working, they aren’t compensated for the time, even when they don’t find out whether they’re needed until the last minute. Thus, these retail workers are left with large chunks of time for which they can’t schedule other jobs, school, or personal time—and also aren’t guaranteed a paycheck. Seems pretty unfair, especially for parents who have to schedule daycare, or employees with long commutes. It’s especially bad because, according to the complaint, workers at Victoria’s Secret may end up working only 10 hours in a five day period, even though they’ve been assigned 30 or more. This sporadic work schedule isn’t only inconvenient—it makes it much less certain that employees can earn the income they need, or accurately predict how much they will make in a month. It’s basically one big scheduling and budgeting nightmare.
VS isn’t the only retailer being investigated. In New York, the attorney general’s office has requested information about scheduling practices from a handful of other retailers, including J. Crew, Bath & Body Works, and Urban Outfitters. Though on-call employees are great assets for companies (and save them tons of money), this action may mark the beginning in a shift of how much control employers have over their employee’s time.
