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Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#161

Post by daedrdev »

vitus wrote: post #153
daedrdev wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure what I said about 5 hours is mostly accurate, the specific rule in California labor law mentions the 5 hour requirement. > In compliance with California labor laws, nonexempt employees are entitled to an unpaid meal or lunch break lasting a minimum of 30 minutes for shifts exceeding five hours. This break, which should commence before the completion of the fifth hour of work, can be waived only if the workda…

> the specific rule in California labor law mentions the 5 hour requirement. You're not wrong here. > This means Employees are basically required to take the meal break before 5 hours I don't think this characterization is supported, though. For one, the law only applies to non-exempt (usually: non-salaried) employees, and for another, case law (typically citing Brinker) consistently holds that the employer is not re…

Yeah you're right here, but its up to the employer to keep good enough records to defend themselves in such a case, even if they are in the right its is often easier to settle considering the chance of loosing anyway and going to court.

There are even stranger violations, apparently asking people to take covid tests before coming to work during the pandemic is a potential violation, and making an typo on paychecks is one I read in an article, even if the typo had no harm.

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#162

Post by anigbrowl »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #157
shreezus wrote: post #18

$5.9M is not even a rounding error for a $2T corporation.

The crime was also not even a rounding error. The important thing is whether the punishment fits the crime.

In terms of profits gained, perhaps. It might have catastrophic consequences for workers who suffered accidents directly or indirectly (eg crashing a car while driving home from an exhausting shift).

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#163

Post by BurningFrog »

numbers wrote: post #32

Amazon made $64,809,782.60 in revenue every hour in Q3 2023. Source: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/how-much-does-amazon-make-i...

California collected $26M in taxes every hour in 2023.

Neither of the parties here lack monetary resources.

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#164

Post by pleasantpeasant »

BurningFrog wrote: post #163
numbers wrote: post #32

Amazon made $64,809,782.60 in revenue every hour in Q3 2023. Source: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/how-much-does-amazon-make-i...

California collected $26M in taxes every hour in 2023. Neither of the parties here lack monetary resources.

Those tax dollars go back to California and country. Amazon does everything in its power to not pay taxes or help society. It really shows little Amazon is taxed at, if at all.

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#166

Post by tjbiddle »

raoulw wrote: post #154
schneems wrote: post #121

Is this more or less than they made from breaking said law. I know regulatory capture is a thing but it seems like there should be some minimum “Crimes committed for financial gain that are punished with a fine must have a minimum fine of 100x the amount of money they made from the crime” The 90’s saw a constant stream of journalists and politicians praising 3 strikes laws. Where’s our “100x FAFO laws”?

It’s ~ six minutes of revenue.

~ 2 hours of profits @ 5%

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#168

Post by benreesman »

schneems wrote: post #121

Is this more or less than they made from breaking said law. I know regulatory capture is a thing but it seems like there should be some minimum “Crimes committed for financial gain that are punished with a fine must have a minimum fine of 100x the amount of money they made from the crime” The 90’s saw a constant stream of journalists and politicians praising 3 strikes laws. Where’s our “100x FAFO laws”?

They’ve been doing this for years. It costs less to pay the fines than the loss in productivity would be, the robots didn’t pan out in the timeframe advertised and driving human labor to subsistence level (“loose labor markets”) is both policy and incidentally the reason why all the polls say “the economy is terrible” and all the pundits say “how do we convince the public that the metrics show they should be happy”.

Re: Amazon fined $5.9M for breaking labor law in California

#169

Post by TechDebtDevin »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #36
numbers wrote: post #32

Amazon made $64,809,782.60 in revenue every hour in Q3 2023. Source: https://www.junglescout.com/blog/how-much-does-amazon-make-i...

How much of that was from Californian warehouses? Because if you don’t do that math, the fine gets overturned by the courts. That not only reduces the deterrence factor. It delays private enforcement by the harmed employees who would have otherwise relied on the commission’s facts in court without the colour of them being overturned on appeal.

They will also wast 5mm+ in taxpayer dollars via appeals. The Corporate Cartel will always win.
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