Amazon fined for stealing the tips their drivers earned.

[Cheetodust]

A curious thing about the left, how is he not the biggest enemy the left faces. Libertarians have Paul Krugman to hate, Conservatives AOC, and Obama, Neoliberals Bernie, and Trump, Liberals hate Trump and McConnell, but it's hard to pin down who the left hates.

If you don't think the left hates billionaire CEOs and that Bezos is the modern day poster child for that group alongside Musk then I can only assume you don't talk to many people on the left. If you're wondering why the left doesn't focus on him specifically it's because of that fact, that he is just emblematic of CEO behaviour under modern day capitalism. Having one specific enemy, although cathartic doesn't actually address the wider issues that allow Bezos to exist.

Being angrt that the world is heating up achieves nothing, you need to focus on the things causing it.

Also maybe, just maybe, we can now accept that the kind of person who hoardes such obscene amounts of wealth that he and his descendants could stop earning money today while spending the equivalent of the median yearly Irish salary a day and not go broke until after the year 17000 might be a vile greedy lowlife. Anyone who craves wealth beyond anything they could ever need will probably steal from you just 'cos. He will take it because in his mind he should have all the money.

 

[Thaluikhain]

If the cost of fucking people over is less than the penalty, then obviously corporations will always choose to cheat people then pay the fine.

That's certainly true, but I might extend that a bit. It's hardly impossible this isn't the only theft they are involved in, if the cost of getting caught for what they get your for is less than the income you get for the total amount of crimes you actually commit, it's worthwhile.

 

[Agema]

If the cost of fucking people over is less than the penalty, then obviously corporations will always choose to cheat people then pay the fine.

The remarkable thing is that anyone is surprised, because just about every (sizeable) company that involves itself in tips ends up topping up their own pockets from them. Restaurant chain after restaurant chain has done this - whether it's using tips to suppress salaries, or administering the tips and taking a (frequently generous) cut.

If you have a system where managerial progression essentially boils down to how much money they make, they'll steal the tips and take the promotion, and the PR mess when it finally blows up can fall on whoever took over their job or just be diffusely absorbed by the company.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Presumably, Amazon handles the billing, so when people include a tip in the bill, they just keep it and don't pay it to the driver. Of course this won't work if it's a separate cash tip, which I'll go out on a limb and assume is all of the tips Amazon didn't "withhold".

Ah, I had no idea you could tip a person in any other way beside in cash. That's not something we do around here

From the article...

I did read this, but as I didn't know tipping through the company itself was possible, it meant nothing to me. Tips in general are a pretty foreign concept to me.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Ah, I had no idea you could tip a person in any other way beside in cash. That's not something we do around here

Yeah, tipping is such a crucial part of how we handle restaurants and some other things in the United States that where it typically occurs, 99%+ of the time there's a spot on the bill for you to write in how much you want to tip and include it in with the rest of it. Usually(?) employers don't use this in order to steal tips (I think?), but the universality of being able to include the tip in the bill itself and pay it with a check or credit card makes it easy for them to steal tips if they want to.

 

[Agema]

I did read this, but as I didn't know tipping through the company itself was possible, it meant nothing to me. Tips in general are a pretty foreign concept to me.

Tips have long since mutated from their original function as a reward for good service into a way for employers to underpay their staff.

The entire concept of tipping cannot die fast enough for my liking.

 

[Eacaraxe]

If you don't think the left hates billionaire CEOs and that Bezos is the modern day poster child for that group alongside Musk then I can only assume you don't talk to many people on the left.

Frankly, it's not Gergar's fault. Don't forget the American news media loves to pretend "not MAGA" and "left" are synonymous, then proceeds to signal boost idpol-shilling neolibs whose only purpose in life is to destroy solidarity as "the left" while pretending the actual left simply doesn't exist. Or at least, until they need a bogeyman to poison the well and outgroup people with crazy notions like cops shouldn't be allowed to legally murder black people, that health care is a human right, the ultra-wealth and corporations should pay taxes, or maybe the working class should be paid a living wage. Then, and only then, are there not enough Justins and Ketchups in the world to satisfy the media's hunger for useful idiocy.

 

[BrawlMan]

Bezos is a corporate dick, pussy, and asshole all rolled in to one.

​

 

[Kae]

Despite the bad fame poor people receive for being thieves, this is a good reminder that the actual most common form of theft is wage theft, which means things like this, so even if you're stupid and you somehow don't see the exploitation of labour that occurs within capitalism as theft, the most common form of theft still is rich people taking from the poor and not the other way around as much as the media likes to paint it that way.

 

[tippy2k2]

Despite the bad fame poor people receive for being thieves, this is a good reminder that the actual most common form of theft is wage theft, which means things like this, so even if you're stupid and you somehow don't see the exploitation of labour that occurs within capitalism as theft, the most common form of theft still is rich people taking from the poor and not the other way around as much as the media likes to paint it that way.

A homeless man stealing $20 from a person will get 20 years in prison while a Suit stealing $20 million from thousands of people will receive a $200,000 fine and told not to do it again.

 

[Agema]

A homeless man stealing $20 from a person will get 20 years in prison while a Suit stealing $20 million from thousands of people will receive a $200,000 fine and told not to do it again.

...and receive a presidential pardon a few years later.

 

[tippy2k2]

...and receive a presidential pardon a few years later.

Why are you shooting so low? A pardon? Mother fucker might become President with how stupid this country is...

 

[Generals]

Now I wonder if the tips I gave to all those uber (eats) drivers were fully paid to them ...

But yeah, amazon being amazon: 0 respect for the workers down the corporate ladder.

 

[Kae]

Now I wonder if the tips I gave to all those uber (eats) drivers were fully paid to them ...

But yeah, amazon being amazon: 0 respect for the workers down the corporate ladder.

That's why I always tip with cash, just want to make sure the filth doesn't take what's not theirs.

 

[tippy2k2]

That's why I always tip with cash, just want to make sure the filth doesn't take what's not theirs.

It's not something I'd generally do, just because I don't generally carry cash around at all.

But we see stories like this constantly now (especially with these "Big Tech" groups) that is making me highly question my own practice. I don't generally do takeout or really use many services that would "require" a tip but it would probably be a good practice to just keep five singles and a fiver in my wallet at all times...

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

That's why I always tip with cash, just want to make sure the filth doesn't take what's not theirs.

I noticed that Subway was giving an option to add a tip on credit card purchases, but the sandwich guy told me that the workers never actually see any of it.

A homeless man stealing $20 from a person will get 20 years in prison while a Suit stealing $20 million from thousands of people will receive a $200,000 fine and told not to do it again.

When a poor man robs a rich man with a gun, that's criminal. When a rich man robs a poor man with a pen, that's business.

 

[Silvanus]

There was a small news story in the UK a few years back about restaurants doing this. In UK restaurants, customers can often add tips to the bill itself, and pay the whole thing in one go on their card. Some restaurants then pool all the money paid as tips and divide it between staff.

It turned out, however, that numerous restaurants (including rich chains like Pizza Express) were deducting an "admin fee" from the pool before dividing it. You know... because whipping out a calculator and transferring money is such a costly administrative burden. And some others (a minority, but a sizeable minority-- 20% in 2009) don't pass tips onto staff at all.

As soon as something like this isn't regulated, businesses find a way to weasel their way through the cracks and shaft their own employees.

 

[Adam Jensen]

but it's hard to pin down who the left hates.

Maybe Nazis, racists and other right-wing lunatics who are trying to kill them?

Also Wall Street.

 

[fOx]

All of the above, minus maybe Bernie and AOC on a good day?

Far as most of "The Left" is concerned, Bernie and AOC are the moderate compromise option

This is accurate. People keep telling us that we have to compromise. They don't get that bernie and aoc ARE the compromise. They're the alternative to literally eating billionaires on live tv.

 

[Agema]

There was a small news story in the UK a few years back about restaurants doing this. In UK restaurants, customers can often add tips to the bill itself, and pay the whole thing in one go on their card. Some restaurants then pool all the money paid as tips and divide it between staff.

It turned out, however, that numerous restaurants (including rich chains like Pizza Express) were deducting an "admin fee" from the pool before dividing it. You know... because whipping out a calculator and transferring money is such a costly administrative burden. And some others (a minority, but a sizeable minority-- 20% in 2009) don't pass tips onto staff at all.

As soon as something like this isn't regulated, businesses find a way to weasel their way through the cracks and shaft their own employees.

Yep. We used to ask the waiters whether they got the tip. If they didn't, we didn't give one. If they only got it if it were in cash, we would give it in cash.

That admin fee stuff was bullshit. If these systems are to exist, it should be a few minutes work as part of the manager's job, not a service the staff pay the company for.