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Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

bloomberg.com

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Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#31

Post by ensiferum »

wyldfire wrote: post #8
ensiferum wrote: post #2

Nice one, They could also ask them to drive to work on their days off to pick up some deliveries ;-)

shrug the natural instinct seems to be to skewer WalMart for oppressing their employees but this seems like a good idea to me. > Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home, the company said Thursday in a blog post. Wal-Mart didn’t specify how the employees will be compensated. It's not…

"Wal-Mart didn’t specify how the employees will be compensated."

They can be compensated by a coffee voucher. Or compensated by the joy and feelings of accomplishment they'll derive from their new work tasks.

Just saying.

Seriously tho, if they get into an accident delivering the packages is that something that'll get covered by Walmart? How about the wear and tear on the vehicle?

It really seems like it's a better deal for Wallmart. A handy way to offload delivery costs to the workers for a small compensation.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#32

Post by justforFranz »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #5

> Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home The headline makes it sound coercive but that actually sounds like an efficient use of time and energy (less big trucks on the road, less miles driven, more money for people who want it). I wouldn't mind dropping a few things off on my way h…

It's all fun & free-market capitalism until the employee gets into an accident and then who's liable, or if they go to some murderer/cannibal's house who was just ordering a late-night snack?

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#33

Post by Ensorceled »

dang wrote: post #20
Ensorceled wrote: post #15

My hate for Wal-Mart is white hot, but this is a very uncharitable headline. This would have been better: "Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home"

Ok, we'll use that. Thanks!

Now, I just have to get Bloomberg to update their original article ...

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#37

Post by pavement »

leggomylibro wrote: post #21
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #5

> Workers can opt in to earn extra money by making deliveries using their own cars. They’re assigned packages based on where they live so the route aligns with their commute home The headline makes it sound coercive but that actually sounds like an efficient use of time and energy (less big trucks on the road, less miles driven, more money for people who want it). I wouldn't mind dropping a few things off on my way h…

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

In other words, knowing what we already know about Wal Mart, while this might be good news for share holders, this isn't likely to be good news for employees.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#38

Post by rectang »

basseq wrote: post #19
sabujp wrote: post #4

I can easily see how walmart managers would blackmail^Wencourage employees into doing this.

There's a pretty well-defined precedent in law to counter this. If an "optional" task is used in performance reviews or to define base pay, it then becomes non-optional and the company is very likely in breach of employment law. Hopefully Wal-Mart tells their managers to tread very carefully.

Considering the ubiquity of wage theft in the US, I imagine that even if it is abused the company won't suffer serious consequences.

Low-level management will be scapegoated while upper management who designed the program so that abuse was inevitable will be rewarded.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#39

Post by tuna-piano »

Amazon has a program, "Fulfillment By Amazon", where you can pay Amazon $2.50-$4.00 to pick, pack and ship an item for you[1]. Would Wal-Mart be better off just paying Amazon than paying all the people involved in its process? I'd imagine Wal-Mart is paying its people at least $3 per delivery, in addition to paying the people in its stores to pick/pack the item...

Does turning Wal-Mart stores into distribution centers and retail employees into pickers and delivery people beat dedicated DC's and delivery people? I'd guess not.

[1]https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/pricing.ht...

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#40

Post by david927 »

What are the liability concerns for this? If they get in a car crash on their way home, does Wal-Mart pay? And if not, why not?

To me, personally, this smacks of late-stage capitalism. How long until "voluntary and paid" becomes "coerced and paid little"?

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