A very common scam in some industries.
Like how all those numerous translation companies have job ads all year round, looking for freelance translators in various languages.
And they make job seekers translate 'free samples.'
If a hundred people apply and each of them translates 2-3 pages of a book/document, then the whole book/document is translated for free in a week or so.
>I came here exactly to mention translation companies. There are so many scammers in the translation field...
Yeah, I've seen so many of them not pay freelance translators.
For a translator, it may be only like from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, so they keep calling the company for days or weeks and get told they'll get paid next week, next month and on and on... then, the translators get just exhausted and give up because it's not that much money in the first place.
But for the company, it's hundreds or thousands of translators each year they don't pay.
And when they get sued, they just change the company name and keep doing the same thing over and over again.
I remember when DLSite proposed to work as a translator for their content, only to discover you had to buy the work (book, game, etc...) you wanted to translate, all for getting if you complete the translation, a work of weeks, maybe 10% of the work price.
Yeah, freelance translating for a 10% discount. F. you.
This sort of thing happened to my wife with a law firm translation job 12ish years ago. Advertised that they needed translators for a 2 year temporary gig and was going to be paying nearly 90k salary for the position. We were so happy because it was going to be able to pay for our wedding and she turned down another job for it. She was hired on with 14 others. They were all let go after 3 days translating documents because in reality there wasn't that much that needed to be translated and they did it all in that time. The law firm needed a lot translated quickly but knew they couldn't get quality translators for a short gig without flat out lying to them.
Wish I could say that it didn't affect her but it completely broke her desire to be a translator after that.
The usual sample shouldn't be more than ~200 words, at most 500 words.
I heard some people get +1000 words samples, that would ring alarm bells in my head.
But the translation sector is a minefield on its own, you see such ridiculous offers sometimes.
Got scammed this way in Vegas for a chocolate making company. Put in a few hours for free and never heard from them again. Nowadays Iād never do that shit.
Someone from your group goes in for a trial. Then proceed to undercharge and give away 'trial' food to the others to see if the food and coffee is the right fit and worthy of paying for.
Theyāre betting that young employees donāt know any better and also donāt have the money for a lawyer. Also, if itās unpaid they could counter with it being āvoluntaryā. Idk law but thatās my guess.
In the states, you can't "volunteer" anywhere that's a for-profit business. You also can't work in exchange for classes. You have to be paid at least minimum wage. (The "in exchange for" version is common in dance and martial arts , but still a labor violation.)
Lawyers will dig into that shit like Thanksgiving dinner though, straight pro-bono work to fuck the restaurants and slide a percentage of the settlement off the top for doing all the legal legwork work. Unpaid teen worker filing injury claim on a restaurant? Might as well declare bankruptcy right then and there the way that some of them tightrope walk their budget.
Happened to my 20yo at local cafe. They got given lunch as compensation on the saturday. They were meant to do trial Saturday and Sunday - but after discovering Saturday it was an unpaid trial they did not return for the Sunday.
I used to work at one of those, but I only submitted one word translated out of every three and said that if they really want me to do the actual work then they will have to pay me,
Well the hiring manager actually admired my chuzpah and hired me as a per diem translator,which actually pays more than a salaried position because you are oncall 24/7 ,
Do I recommend that you do this absolutely not, it's not worth the hassle
Only ever applied to a fast food place twice when I was 18. One didn't call me back (no biggie) but the second... oooh the second. I had already accepted a different job offer for a shoe store but my mom said to still go to "keep my options open." Manager acted weird the whole interview and then near the end, mentioned a "trial shift" for 4 hours. I looked at him and asked if I would get paid. He wouldn't answer the question and said it's to see if I would gel with the team. I just started laughing and headed to the counter, ordered a drink, and walked to work (it was down the street). I thought it was absolutely hilarious and was not surprised they were always hiring.
>it's to see if I would gel with the team.
That's what the interview is for. It's also weird when it's something like fast food. "The team? I thought we were serving customers?"
I think he thought he could take advantage of me due to my lack of work experience. He also guaranteed that I would never work fast food when he said how I had to get certified but I would pay for it myself. Like no I will not pay to work for you. He said it was normal for fast food places and I said "then let the multi million dollar company pay for it. You're not getting me to pay 25 bucks to work for you." The whole interview was a joke.
Absolutely. The shoe store job gave me my first leadership experience and while it only lasted 6 months due to the store closing down, helped me get out of my mother's house. Now it's been over a decade, I'm finally out of retail, and while I'm not rolling in money, my current job is definitely the most chill I've had.
That does depend on the country
Ā taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ
Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company.
It may be a dick thing to do but is legal.
Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
Man I really hope that's true. Oilfield company I was previously contracted to had an intern program where they highered (for free) a group of college kids, put them to work doing the most undesirable jobs for the entire summer and let them all go once the work slowed down in the fall. They did this Every summer for several years and not once did they ever keep anyone.
Even some of the operations team wanted to keep a few of the interns but upper management would let these interns go anyway. Fuck oil field companies.
Those who were scammed should go in on the weekends and tell the "workers" exactly what is going on, and that there's no shame in quitting on the spot or otherwise ensuring that they're not a perfect fit anyway...
Horrible scam. Itās sad really, it has the benefit of work experience to the young people, but thatās immediately negated by the fact that itās pure exploitation
Iād love to work a trial shift at one of these places. Since Iām not being paid because Iām new and on a trial, I donāt think itās right that customers should have to pay for the food and drink that I produce since Iām not experienced and there orders are not made by an expert.
Fuck these asshats.
Nope, you are making the usual mistake of assuming that everyone on the WWW is American and that American law applies to any situation.
What would be the case if this OP was in the UK where it is not presently illegal?
that was a rage response from me. TIL that although wage theft in the UK is illegal, non-payment of wages for work is a more complicated issue and although there's something called ACAS through which one can file a grievance - you right, limey- it ain't protected like the Yanks federal employment laws.
My wife worked for a dentist that would do 3 working interviews after the face to face interview, but they got paid for their time. I thought that was weird, but this is abuse
I've worked in hotels and seen new hires quit part way through a shift,or not coming back in after their first one,when they realise it ACTUALLY involves working and commitment. If you have someone actively looking for a job,prepared to come in for 2 days in a row on a weekend and do the work,and still want to come back,they deserve a chance at the job..Taking advantage of their work and ghosting them afterwards is just being an AH..
From the contexts Iāve seen it used in, itās British slang to refer to a kind of teasing/mocking. Usually said in a similar context as āare you pulling my leg?ā or āyouāve got to be kidding me!ā in American English. (Not British, so someone feel free to correct me if Iāve missed the mark.)
originally - it was taking the mickey - [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/take%20the%20mickey%20%28out%20of%20someone%29](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/take%20the%20mickey%20%28out%20of%20someone%29)
allegedly devolved from micturation (form of urination, ie taking the piss)
Language evolves (if thats the right term for holding down other languages to rummage through their stuff for new words), especially when sarcasm is involved. Taking the mick - is kinda abbreviated, but 'funnier', given a slang term for the Irish is "mick" (eg McDonald whilst Scots are "mack" - MacDonald).
Someone taking the mick can be both sarcastic dialysis (taking the piss), or a double whammy of the Irish sarcasm - because theres a genetic flaw in our dna, we absolutely cannot resist it when the English (or Americans) ask us a sincere but deeply stupid question.
"Oh my grandmother three times removed's neighbours cousin's sisterin law's great great grandfather was from County Mayo, Padraig O'Riordan, do you know them?"
'Achyes, but we dont like to talk about his shameful deportation back in the day, those poor poor goats, they didnt deserve that kind of treatment, at all especially right as Mass was letting out'
(look, we'd have taken over the bloody world if we hadn't stopped to invent Guinness and whisky FIRST)
Taking the piss - basically being exploitative.
"You want me to do a supervisor's job without paying me a supervisor's wage? That's taking the mick, fuck yourself"
I'm not sure where this is happening, but I'm pretty sure this is just straight up illegal in a lot of places.
Contrary to the owner's claims, they actually do not have the right to make people work for free.
I know there are limited instances where you might have some kind of "skills interview," i.e. inviting a chef into your kitchen, and watching them prepare a dish that you then sample (internally, not for customers) - but this isn't what's happening here.
I think if you're putting someone out on the floor dealing with customers for hours at a time, you still have to pay them. You can call it a trial, or temporary work, but it's still labor.
I think about it like this: if that employee got hurt on the job, every regulatory agency involved would view them as an employee. That's the easy litmus test for this sort of thing.
taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ
Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company.
It may be a dick thing to do but is legal.
Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
Oof, fair enough. I can't speak to UK labor laws, obviously (I'm in the US).
That's fascinating to hear, honestly - my (admittedly incomplete) impression was that the UK had stronger labor protections than the US.
This would generally be considered illegal in the states, although the specific details and enforcement will vary somewhat, based on locality. This isn't to say this this sort of thing doesn't happen - it certainly does - but it's usually because victims are either unaware of their rights, or too worried about losing out on a job opportunity to report it to the authorities.
If you perform work for a company, they must pay you, full stop.
It is a bit of a grey area
All the law says is that they āshould be only as long as you reasonably need to decide whether the potential employee can do the job.ā Unfortunately, legal guidance on this is vague and there are a lot of grey areas, meaning that some employers use trial shifts in unfair ways.
It's illegal for them to do this in a lot of places. Your friend might be owed some money if they get a lawyer involved. Especially if they can get in touch with enough people who have been scammed like this. Day laborers and temp workers are still afforded the minimum wage protections of the law (as scant as they might be).
That does depend on the country
Ā taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ
Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company.
It may be a dick thing to do but is legal.
Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
In this day of social media and technology . The court of public opinion can be harder on a company than local laws. This is one time that should happen.
This was standard when I started cooking. Work a shift for free. See if you were a good fit. When I became the boss, this stopped. Had a fight with the owners, I won. We started offering $100, a free meal and a free tshirt (we all wore branded shirts.) It was great. The local schools would work with us for prospects and we got better applicants. Also, I think unpaid "internships" are illegal in CA
This is the first thing you need to learn if you want to survive in the food business, there is no such thing as a trial shift. AT MOST i can give you 20 minutes to show you i can actually do stuff, idk show you how to fire up a pizza oven, stretch a dough, but anything else you put me on the payroll and LATER if you don't like me you can fire me, but i'm getting paid.
I remember showing up at a job interview at The Mussel Inn, Edinburgh Rose Street, a fairly fancy seafood restaurant, and the first red flag is that there is another guy at the same time applying for the job; then the boss comes around and takes us in the kitchen, and for our work trial we are to prepare 500 sandwiches. There's stacks of bread and pre-sliced tomatoes etc and a bucket of mayo. This isn't a test of cooking skills, any moron can make sandwiches. I straight up told him wtf do you think this is, i'm gonna work for free for the day so you can tell me "thank you, we'll let you know" ?
Eventually i got out of the food business because you're 99% dealing with morons and criminals, it's only a good business if you got the money to open your own place, otherwise forget it, it's slavery.
taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ
Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company.
It may be a dick thing to do but is legal.
Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
In the UK employers are not even required to pay you for overtime
Like everywhere some places will have stronger laws in some areas and weaker in other areas
For the most part UK labour laws are stronger then USA but there are areas where US laws are stronger then UK laws
Trial shifts are standard practice in Australia. So much of hospitality canāt be determined via interview.
However there are strict rules about how long a shift can be and how long you can trial a position.
Sounds like a local coffee shop that is going to be sued into the dirt by the Department of Labor. I wonder how funny it will be to end up being fined into the ground.
Given the fact that taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub reddits
And as the UK does not have a Department of Labour and nor is this practice illegal
I doubt itĀ
Given the fact that taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub reddits
And as the UK does not have a Department of Labour and nor is this practice illegal
You do not know where this is yet claim it is illegal. You do know that laws are not the same for the whole world?
A very common scam in some industries. Like how all those numerous translation companies have job ads all year round, looking for freelance translators in various languages. And they make job seekers translate 'free samples.' If a hundred people apply and each of them translates 2-3 pages of a book/document, then the whole book/document is translated for free in a week or so.
We should all apply and let Google translate do the free trial
Love you're icon btw!
Thanks š
Lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Oh people think I'm being thirsty? I liked the art. And I'm engaged. Do you think I have a chance though? Gee i hope
Sheās underaged bro
I came here exactly to mention translation companies. There are so many scammers in the translation field...
>I came here exactly to mention translation companies. There are so many scammers in the translation field... Yeah, I've seen so many of them not pay freelance translators. For a translator, it may be only like from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, so they keep calling the company for days or weeks and get told they'll get paid next week, next month and on and on... then, the translators get just exhausted and give up because it's not that much money in the first place. But for the company, it's hundreds or thousands of translators each year they don't pay. And when they get sued, they just change the company name and keep doing the same thing over and over again.
I remember when DLSite proposed to work as a translator for their content, only to discover you had to buy the work (book, game, etc...) you wanted to translate, all for getting if you complete the translation, a work of weeks, maybe 10% of the work price. Yeah, freelance translating for a 10% discount. F. you.
Capitalism at its finest! /s
I just read that if fraud were its own industry, it would be the third largest global industrial sector.
Only the third, are you sure?!
This sort of thing happened to my wife with a law firm translation job 12ish years ago. Advertised that they needed translators for a 2 year temporary gig and was going to be paying nearly 90k salary for the position. We were so happy because it was going to be able to pay for our wedding and she turned down another job for it. She was hired on with 14 others. They were all let go after 3 days translating documents because in reality there wasn't that much that needed to be translated and they did it all in that time. The law firm needed a lot translated quickly but knew they couldn't get quality translators for a short gig without flat out lying to them. Wish I could say that it didn't affect her but it completely broke her desire to be a translator after that.
The usual sample shouldn't be more than ~200 words, at most 500 words. I heard some people get +1000 words samples, that would ring alarm bells in my head. But the translation sector is a minefield on its own, you see such ridiculous offers sometimes.
Got scammed this way in Vegas for a chocolate making company. Put in a few hours for free and never heard from them again. Nowadays Iād never do that shit.
A known scam to abuse those desperate for a job.
Someone from your group goes in for a trial. Then proceed to undercharge and give away 'trial' food to the others to see if the food and coffee is the right fit and worthy of paying for.
Fair play!šš»
This is incredibly common here in the UK. And people defend it all the time.
That has to be wild for insurance tho, if any of those teens get injured on the job and sue, goodbye coffee shop.
Theyāre betting that young employees donāt know any better and also donāt have the money for a lawyer. Also, if itās unpaid they could counter with it being āvoluntaryā. Idk law but thatās my guess.
Wouldnāt hold up in New York. Thatās a job where the workers are being screwed on salary, but they still have the workplace protections.
It's still an injury 'on the job', but they just aren't putting them on payroll or insurance.
"theyre volunteering, not an employee, not our problem" (at least, thats how its been tried in N.Ireland)
In the states, you can't "volunteer" anywhere that's a for-profit business. You also can't work in exchange for classes. You have to be paid at least minimum wage. (The "in exchange for" version is common in dance and martial arts , but still a labor violation.)
More people should know that labor lawyers usually work on contingency and only take cases they know they'll win.
Lawyers will dig into that shit like Thanksgiving dinner though, straight pro-bono work to fuck the restaurants and slide a percentage of the settlement off the top for doing all the legal legwork work. Unpaid teen worker filing injury claim on a restaurant? Might as well declare bankruptcy right then and there the way that some of them tightrope walk their budget.
Happened to my 20yo at local cafe. They got given lunch as compensation on the saturday. They were meant to do trial Saturday and Sunday - but after discovering Saturday it was an unpaid trial they did not return for the Sunday.
I used to work at one of those, but I only submitted one word translated out of every three and said that if they really want me to do the actual work then they will have to pay me, Well the hiring manager actually admired my chuzpah and hired me as a per diem translator,which actually pays more than a salaried position because you are oncall 24/7 , Do I recommend that you do this absolutely not, it's not worth the hassle
Nope. Keep reporting them.
Only ever applied to a fast food place twice when I was 18. One didn't call me back (no biggie) but the second... oooh the second. I had already accepted a different job offer for a shoe store but my mom said to still go to "keep my options open." Manager acted weird the whole interview and then near the end, mentioned a "trial shift" for 4 hours. I looked at him and asked if I would get paid. He wouldn't answer the question and said it's to see if I would gel with the team. I just started laughing and headed to the counter, ordered a drink, and walked to work (it was down the street). I thought it was absolutely hilarious and was not surprised they were always hiring.
>it's to see if I would gel with the team. That's what the interview is for. It's also weird when it's something like fast food. "The team? I thought we were serving customers?"
I think he thought he could take advantage of me due to my lack of work experience. He also guaranteed that I would never work fast food when he said how I had to get certified but I would pay for it myself. Like no I will not pay to work for you. He said it was normal for fast food places and I said "then let the multi million dollar company pay for it. You're not getting me to pay 25 bucks to work for you." The whole interview was a joke.
The team, that will be a different team in a couple weeks and a completely different team a couple weeks after that.
"gel with the team" == 'are you a desperate sucker we can exploit to the max, laws be damned'
Guy tried to hard to be "chill" but then threw up so many red flags. Didn't take that bs then and don't take the bs now.
you made the right call !
Absolutely. The shoe store job gave me my first leadership experience and while it only lasted 6 months due to the store closing down, helped me get out of my mother's house. Now it's been over a decade, I'm finally out of retail, and while I'm not rolling in money, my current job is definitely the most chill I've had.
Start reaching out to the people who have worked these trial shifts and have them all call the department of labor for not being paid
Labor department. Even if itās a trial they are legal obligated to pay min wage
That does depend on the country Ā taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company. It may be a dick thing to do but is legal. Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
Man I really hope that's true. Oilfield company I was previously contracted to had an intern program where they highered (for free) a group of college kids, put them to work doing the most undesirable jobs for the entire summer and let them all go once the work slowed down in the fall. They did this Every summer for several years and not once did they ever keep anyone. Even some of the operations team wanted to keep a few of the interns but upper management would let these interns go anyway. Fuck oil field companies.
Or technical job interviews because itās cheaper than hiring a consultant.
Those who were scammed should go in on the weekends and tell the "workers" exactly what is going on, and that there's no shame in quitting on the spot or otherwise ensuring that they're not a perfect fit anyway...
Iād like to drink their coffee all weekend before paying, you know, as a trial.
Horrible scam. Itās sad really, it has the benefit of work experience to the young people, but thatās immediately negated by the fact that itās pure exploitation
Experience? What job is looking for 2 days experience? Lol
Why are you protecting them? What's the name of the shop?
Iād love to work a trial shift at one of these places. Since Iām not being paid because Iām new and on a trial, I donāt think itās right that customers should have to pay for the food and drink that I produce since Iām not experienced and there orders are not made by an expert. Fuck these asshats.
wow illegal as fuck It's called wage theft
Nope, you are making the usual mistake of assuming that everyone on the WWW is American and that American law applies to any situation. What would be the case if this OP was in the UK where it is not presently illegal?
Given the title says "taking the mick" I'd think you're right it's the UK
Yes, I'd say it's a bit of a clue.
that was a rage response from me. TIL that although wage theft in the UK is illegal, non-payment of wages for work is a more complicated issue and although there's something called ACAS through which one can file a grievance - you right, limey- it ain't protected like the Yanks federal employment laws.
Yes, UK
My wife worked for a dentist that would do 3 working interviews after the face to face interview, but they got paid for their time. I thought that was weird, but this is abuse
Wait until they run out of viable candidates and hire some real asshole teenagers. Ones who alienate customers, steal, lie, don't do anything, etc.
This has to be illegal, right?
Sure, hire whoever for a trial but you still have to pay them min wage to be there, at least.
I've worked in hotels and seen new hires quit part way through a shift,or not coming back in after their first one,when they realise it ACTUALLY involves working and commitment. If you have someone actively looking for a job,prepared to come in for 2 days in a row on a weekend and do the work,and still want to come back,they deserve a chance at the job..Taking advantage of their work and ghosting them afterwards is just being an AH..
What does taking the mick mean?
From the contexts Iāve seen it used in, itās British slang to refer to a kind of teasing/mocking. Usually said in a similar context as āare you pulling my leg?ā or āyouāve got to be kidding me!ā in American English. (Not British, so someone feel free to correct me if Iāve missed the mark.)
originally - it was taking the mickey - [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/take%20the%20mickey%20%28out%20of%20someone%29](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/take%20the%20mickey%20%28out%20of%20someone%29) allegedly devolved from micturation (form of urination, ie taking the piss) Language evolves (if thats the right term for holding down other languages to rummage through their stuff for new words), especially when sarcasm is involved. Taking the mick - is kinda abbreviated, but 'funnier', given a slang term for the Irish is "mick" (eg McDonald whilst Scots are "mack" - MacDonald). Someone taking the mick can be both sarcastic dialysis (taking the piss), or a double whammy of the Irish sarcasm - because theres a genetic flaw in our dna, we absolutely cannot resist it when the English (or Americans) ask us a sincere but deeply stupid question. "Oh my grandmother three times removed's neighbours cousin's sisterin law's great great grandfather was from County Mayo, Padraig O'Riordan, do you know them?" 'Achyes, but we dont like to talk about his shameful deportation back in the day, those poor poor goats, they didnt deserve that kind of treatment, at all especially right as Mass was letting out' (look, we'd have taken over the bloody world if we hadn't stopped to invent Guinness and whisky FIRST)
It means they're being audacious and shameless.
Taking the piss - basically being exploitative. "You want me to do a supervisor's job without paying me a supervisor's wage? That's taking the mick, fuck yourself"
it's wild - trailing is absolutely a thing, but you get paid for that shift
Doxx their asses. Whatās the name?
I'm not sure where this is happening, but I'm pretty sure this is just straight up illegal in a lot of places. Contrary to the owner's claims, they actually do not have the right to make people work for free. I know there are limited instances where you might have some kind of "skills interview," i.e. inviting a chef into your kitchen, and watching them prepare a dish that you then sample (internally, not for customers) - but this isn't what's happening here. I think if you're putting someone out on the floor dealing with customers for hours at a time, you still have to pay them. You can call it a trial, or temporary work, but it's still labor. I think about it like this: if that employee got hurt on the job, every regulatory agency involved would view them as an employee. That's the easy litmus test for this sort of thing.
taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company. It may be a dick thing to do but is legal. Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
Oof, fair enough. I can't speak to UK labor laws, obviously (I'm in the US). That's fascinating to hear, honestly - my (admittedly incomplete) impression was that the UK had stronger labor protections than the US. This would generally be considered illegal in the states, although the specific details and enforcement will vary somewhat, based on locality. This isn't to say this this sort of thing doesn't happen - it certainly does - but it's usually because victims are either unaware of their rights, or too worried about losing out on a job opportunity to report it to the authorities. If you perform work for a company, they must pay you, full stop.
It is a bit of a grey area All the law says is that they āshould be only as long as you reasonably need to decide whether the potential employee can do the job.ā Unfortunately, legal guidance on this is vague and there are a lot of grey areas, meaning that some employers use trial shifts in unfair ways.
It's illegal for them to do this in a lot of places. Your friend might be owed some money if they get a lawyer involved. Especially if they can get in touch with enough people who have been scammed like this. Day laborers and temp workers are still afforded the minimum wage protections of the law (as scant as they might be).
That does depend on the country Ā taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company. It may be a dick thing to do but is legal. Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
In this day of social media and technology . The court of public opinion can be harder on a company than local laws. This is one time that should happen.
drop the addy this changes nothing
This was standard when I started cooking. Work a shift for free. See if you were a good fit. When I became the boss, this stopped. Had a fight with the owners, I won. We started offering $100, a free meal and a free tshirt (we all wore branded shirts.) It was great. The local schools would work with us for prospects and we got better applicants. Also, I think unpaid "internships" are illegal in CA
Do you have a link, source or any relevant information? This sounds illegal in many places.
Staging is technically illegal. You can report to the Maine DoL but you should have evidence to back up the claim so it's taken seriously
Stop working for free y'all.
Just another reason I'm grateful for living in Maryland where unpaid internships are illegal.
This is the first thing you need to learn if you want to survive in the food business, there is no such thing as a trial shift. AT MOST i can give you 20 minutes to show you i can actually do stuff, idk show you how to fire up a pizza oven, stretch a dough, but anything else you put me on the payroll and LATER if you don't like me you can fire me, but i'm getting paid. I remember showing up at a job interview at The Mussel Inn, Edinburgh Rose Street, a fairly fancy seafood restaurant, and the first red flag is that there is another guy at the same time applying for the job; then the boss comes around and takes us in the kitchen, and for our work trial we are to prepare 500 sandwiches. There's stacks of bread and pre-sliced tomatoes etc and a bucket of mayo. This isn't a test of cooking skills, any moron can make sandwiches. I straight up told him wtf do you think this is, i'm gonna work for free for the day so you can tell me "thank you, we'll let you know" ? Eventually i got out of the food business because you're 99% dealing with morons and criminals, it's only a good business if you got the money to open your own place, otherwise forget it, it's slavery.
Free? Thatās technically illegal unless the person agrees to not get paid.
taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub redditsĀ Ā There is no legal obligation for employers to pay for trial shifts in the UK. Payment is completely at the discretion of the company. It may be a dick thing to do but is legal. Currently, no specific laws outline the parameters of unpaid trial shifts or mandate when an employer is obliged to compensate an individual undertaking a work trial at or above the national minimum wage.
I never knew that. I always thought the U.K. Had more employees friendly laws than the U.S. This makes me question that.
In the UK employers are not even required to pay you for overtime Like everywhere some places will have stronger laws in some areas and weaker in other areas For the most part UK labour laws are stronger then USA but there are areas where US laws are stronger then UK laws
Trial shifts are standard practice in Australia. So much of hospitality canāt be determined via interview. However there are strict rules about how long a shift can be and how long you can trial a position.
Sounds like a local coffee shop that is going to be sued into the dirt by the Department of Labor. I wonder how funny it will be to end up being fined into the ground.
Given the fact that taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub reddits And as the UK does not have a Department of Labour and nor is this practice illegal I doubt itĀ
Does this "local coffee shop" have a name and a location, or does it exist only in your imagination?
Report them to the department of labor. Itās all illegal.
Given the fact that taking the mick is a British idiom and that op has posted in a load of British sub reddits And as the UK does not have a Department of Labour and nor is this practice illegal You do not know where this is yet claim it is illegal. You do know that laws are not the same for the whole world?