Summer jobs take on a whole new meaning

Just a few years ago, most college students who wanted to work a summer job were able to find one. It may not have been in their chosen field, but it allowed them to make some money for the coming school year.

Those were the good old days when students who worked full-time summer jobs and part-time jobs during the school year were able to pay their own college costs, graduating with perhaps a few thousand dollars in student loans. Those loans were shouldered with relative ease by new graduates because they clocked in at the bargain basement interest rate of 2.5 percent.

However, that was before the price of gas was closing in on $5 a gallon and before a loaf of bread cost $5 at the supermarket. Actually, that was just a few years ago. But today’s college students are facing an entirely new set of economic truths, including the altered nature of the eternal, dependable retail summer job.

Summer workers at many retail outlets no longer can know with any certainty how much money they will make that season. And that is if they can find a store that needs workers and will hire someone just for the summer months.

The first place many jobseekers will head is to the local shopping mall. They are familiar with the merchandise, the store hours, and it is usually close to home. What they may not know is that some of those different stores are actually owned by the same corporate entity and are all run the same way according to corporate rules.

So if they are unhappy with the way one store schedules part-time workers, they may apply for work at another store, which does the exact same thing. An example of multiple so-called brands under the same corporate ownership is The Gap Inc. which owns The Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime.

Some corporations, which own several different retail brands and have familiar names located in the malls, have shifted the way in which they hire employees for the summer. Full time summer retail jobs are rare. Most jobs are now part-time. The schedules can be iffy although the commitment of the employee must be 100 percent.

Welcome to the world of the on-call schedule.

The on-call schedule for retail part-time workers is now being used by a number of retail stores. The Limited Brand Inc. is one example. They own Victoria’s Secret, Bath and Body Works, The White Barn Candle Co., C.O. Bigelow, Henri Bendel and La Senza. Other mall stores also use the on-call schedule.

Most local store managers are not permitted to speak to the media.  Nearly all of the corporate offices which were contacted regarding part-time workers simply did not reply.  Of those that acknowledged the request, most did not answer the questions but instead provided another corporate phone number, and not one of those contacts returned any calls.

There was a reply from the Limited Brands.  In the note, the public relations executive said, “We choose not to participate in this article.”  And JC Penneys, in two e-mails, referred to job openings in the local area by way of their Web site. 

On-call and living your life (not really)

The on-call schedule for a part-time retail store employee is different from the on-call schedule used by some other industries. The most familiar is the medical world where doctors and other employees are on-call for additional work after and between their regular shifts.

Another routine use of on-call employment is for substitute teachers. Those part-time teachers know when a staff teacher is absent, they will be called and they will be expected to show up for work as soon as possible.

Other industries simply inform their workers that they may be called in unexpectedly to fill a sudden absence and the employee has the option of accepting or rejecting the additional work hours.

The retail stores use the on-call schedule in a different manner. Not only are part-time workers given on-call hours after their regularly scheduled shifts, they also are given entire days during which they are on-call. In that case, the worker is expected to check one hour before the scheduled shift to see whether they are working that day. They can not refuse to come in because it is part of the job.

Kristina Victoria is a full-time college student in Ventura County and lives in Moorpark. She used to work at Bath and Body Works and was expected to be available for her on-call hours.

“It was really inconvenient, because if I had to work, I could only find out one hour before the scheduled shift,” Kristina said. “And if I didn’t work, it was too late to make actual plans with my friends.”

She couldn’t hang out with her friends or even work another part-time job on these on-call days that could have helped pay her bills. If she was required to come in and didn’t, then she could lose her job.

Mary Victoria, Kristina’s mother, has worked in the financial world for many years and sees both sides of the issue. However, she said she did not like it when her daughter had to struggle just to get some hours at the store.

“They only worked three hours at a time so they didn’t have to give them breaks, so it wasn’t really worth the time,” Mary said. “As a parent, I wanted her to get another job because she couldn’t plan anything and she couldn’t count on anything so far as making any money.”

Mary said she understands the reasons certain stores use the on-call schedule, but she does not agree with them.

“It’s almost like they didn’t want to invest in the kids and they could get them as cheaply as possible,” Mary said. “I understand from a business aspect, it makes sense. Why schedule all these people when you don’t have to pay them? But on the other hand, other companies give schedules and stick to them.”

Kristina agreed that the situation was not workable for her.

“If I had to rely on the call times, I didn’t necessarily get the hours I needed to pay bills,” Kristina said. “I would be sent home early if the store wasn’t busy because I was the one that was called in. So some weeks I’d have a ton of hours and other weeks I’d have like none.”

The California Division of Labor Standards of Enforcement said in an unsigned letter that there are no special provisions for part-time employees under the law.

“The employer is free to schedule work as needed,” the letter stated, “there is nothing that would prohibit what you describe as ‘on-call’ schedules (if they can find anyone willing to work under such conditions).”

According to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Industrial Relations, Kate McGuire, there have been no official complaints filed in Ventura County about on-call schedules.

But still, people, especially students, accept work in such unreliable employment conditions. One student who currently works at one of those jobs agreed to talk but requested that her name not be used for fear of losing her job. She said it was OK to be referred to as “S.”

“I accept an on-call schedule because as a summer part-time worker,” S said, “I am not making a career out of this and, I don’t think it is worth the time or hassle to create a problem about it when I just need the money right now.”

S said getting any job at the Simi Valley mall was harder than expected, and she didn’t have a lot of choices.

“I don’t get a different job because this summer, with the way the economy is, they aren’t hiring part-time workers who come home from college in the middle of June,” S said. “This was one of the few retailers willing to hire for June through the middle of September.”

S added she is given only 10-15 hours of guaranteed work each week and the rest is on-call.

There are, of course, many retailers which do not use the on-call schedule. But, they do not usually hire workers just for the summer. Their employees are mostly part-timers who work all year. When the store comes up short on workers, the employees cover it.

Anna Tapia is a department manager at Petsmart in Ventura. She said when someone calls in sick, the other workers adjust to the situation.

“If I have enough people in the store, I can move around people into different departments,” Tapia said. “My idea is to train employees in every single department. In case somebody calls out, they will know what to do.”

Tapia said most employees work for the store about one or two years.

“They like being here because they can tell us when they can work because of school commitments,” Tapia said. “We understand that they need time to do their homework. We understand that just because you are part-time, you still need to have some weekends off, too.”

Tapia said she started as a part-time worker four years ago and has worked her way up to being a full-time manager.

The new interview: Come together now

And what a surreal experience the job interview has become for certain stores if the job sought is just a part-time sales job. This new configuration of traditional procedures is called a group interview.

Clusters of job applicants, usually around five or six, are summoned to a location, usually at the store where they want to work, sometimes on a Sunday evening, and are put through their paces for a couple of uncompensated hours. The individual interview, which lasts about 15 minutes, is disappearing.

The applicants fill out forms and are asked questions. Generally, these are the same types of questions which an applicant would expect to be asked in an individual interview. However, in a group setting, one may respond to such inquiries in a different way. Nevertheless, most students are unfazed by the group interview.

A few years ago, a Victoria’s Secret group interview introduced a decidedly questionable element.

Kristina said she was applying for a job there.

“I did a group interview at Victoria’s Secret and I was never asked back,” Kristina said. “Basically, they did a group interview, and then would tell you about the Victoria’s Secret credit card.”

That was where the typical job interview took a strange turn.

“Then they would put you out on the floor,” Kristina said, “to see if you could actually get people to sign up for the credit card before they decided if they wanted to hire you or not. We were supposed to tell the customers about the rewards.”

That day Christina didn’t get anyone to sign up for a credit. She also did not get the job and was not paid for the time she spent selling the credit card inside Victoria’s Secret store. Kristina said she did not get a job there and she was not paid for her time selling the credit card inside the Victoria’s Secret store.

Many retail stores now use group interviews as the initial step for a job applicant. They do not, however, put the applicants to work to see if they can actually sell something. That step happens after the person has been hired.

Minimum wage and maximum profits

California has established a minimum wage, which is one of the highest in the country, at $8 an hour. However, the recent explosion of the costs of living such as gas, food and sky-high rent in Ventura County has made the wage inadequate for survival.

Those who make minimum wage, work part-time and are not able to count on a certain number of work hours each week, are in an impossible situation. The jobs that pay the least are now only good for students looking to acquire some spending money.

Another new twist in the retail workplace for part-time workers is something called a “quota.” These quotas are not set-in-stone minimum numbers of sales dollars, they are considered to be more of a guiding goal that is set by the corporation. Nevertheless, quotas are noted and become a part of the employee’s record.

These quotas are determined by the corporation according to its equation of the store’s location, time of year, which department in the store, and other factors outside the control of
the worker.

S works at a store that uses quotas.

“That is about the amount of money our store should be making on par with previous years,” S said. “The purpose of the quota is to make sure you are not standing around doing nothing. A manager can’t watch everyone at once.”

S said the employees do not make any commission on their sales. They earn straight minimum wage for the hours worked. But the quota does matter.

“If you meet your quota, you get to keep your job,” S said. “You are working in sales. If you plan to work there throughout the year or to go full-time and you continuously exceed your quota, you generally get a promotion with a raise.”

There oughtta be a law

In all of California’s labor regulations, there is no specific rule about the issue of an on-call schedule. So the question is whether a part-time retail worker should be compensated for the time they must reserve in order to be on-call for the employer. The most recent legal opinion letter on record was written in 1993. This opinion provides the foundation for any legal action, although it is not legally binding.

The letter stated the standard for whether a worker should be compensated for time they reserve for their employer by being on-call depends on whether being on-call is reasonable.
The nature of the employment as it relates to workers being on-call must be reasonable.

The letter elaborated on the factors which should be weighed in the decision as to whether the employee should be paid.

“Under California law it is only necessary that the worker be subject to the ‘control of the employer’ in order to be entitled to compensation,” the opinion stated. “The ultimate consideration in applying the California law is determining the extent of the ‘control’ exercised.”

Lawyers may not find this explanation much more helpful than the ordinary person.

As is true with many aspects of the law, this issue is determined by a legal test. A legal test generally balances factors which the courts have laid out as important.

The factors for consideration in this instance are: 1) geographical restrictions on the employee; 2) required response time; 3) the nature of the employment; and 4) how much the policy affects the worker’s personal activities.

“Immediate control by the employer, which is for the direct benefit of the employer, must be compensated,” the opinion said. “If the control exercised by the employer is unreasonable, the on-call time is compensable.”

Until someone files a complaint with the Labor Board and the complaint is adjudicated, the absolute legality of on-call schedules for retail part-timers will continue to flap in the breeze of uncertainty and fear.