| In the Pursuit of Freedom! |
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| Time to get rid of the clouds which are hanging over our citizen soldiers! |
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| AAFES EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES |
| This Month's Column: AAFES Employment Practices |
| People who are military are familiar with the Post Exchanges, Base Exchanges, etc. What people may not know is that the workers in these stores are sometimes underpaid for the amount of hours they actually work, are treated worse than workers in "sweat shops", and receive practically no motivation in the form of store discounts. First let's look at the practice of strong-arming employees into agreeing to working overtime with out pay. The store managers will go to the different section managers (ie: Hardlines or softlines managers) who will in turn go to the section supervisor to tell their hourly workers that they will need to stay longer than their shift. Some of the workers know that this means "without" pay. Others that are new stay thinking that they will be paid for these overtime hours. When pay-day comes around, the workers with complaints are herded to the supervisor's, and the supervisors are then to tell the employee that they "stayed out of the goodness of thier heart" to try to make the PX a better place. And that the hours they work over look good for promotion. One supervisor at a PX stateside, questioned the lagality of this practice. The supervisor was told that such questions were never to be asked again, and that if it was a problem, then the military spouse may also find problems! The supervisor was also told that it was the supervisor and NOT the management that requested or even told the employee to stay and work overtime without pay, making the supervisor the one who would be in violation of any federal or state laws! Needless to say, the supervisor was forced out, fired and told to keep quiet. Workers who have medical problems fare no better. If there are ongoing medical problems the worker is fired for reasons ranging from "unable to do the required tasks during probationary period" to "internal theft". One such incident had a supervisor in the managers office for stealing time sheets. When the supervisor asked that the MP's be called, the managers refused and told the supervisor to go quietly because it would look bad for the military spouse! *NOTE......this supervisor was a disabled veteran. Upon her termination, she was told by the manager that had they known she had a disability, she would have never been hired!!!! All of this going on. But there must be a good side to working for AAFES, right? Let's see. Employee discount..........doesn't exist. Employee's getting first dibs on marked down items.........employee's must wait a set period (3 days) after a markdown before they can purchase the item. Sick days............this goes back to the medical item earlier......sick days are looked down on. Why hasn't anyone come forward? People are scared that this will come back on their military spouse or just won't do anything. You know the old addage that you can't fight the government! |
