[Publib] Part-time employment -- Wal-Mart -- the future?

[Backwage at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/26/2009 6:17:44 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
phenriksen at alexandercountync.gov writes:

Is this  a harbinger of the future?


Out here, most retail positions are part-time.  The reason for this is  
that corporations do not wish to have the worker perceive that she has a  
permanent job and therefore a secure position; in our grocery stores, even the  
unionized retail clerks work mostly 20-30 hour weeks.  Rare is the  full-time 
worker.  This began to occur because benefits could be restricted  or 
reduced for part-timers; also this is a way to keep wage costs down.   When a 
worker has not been used to full-time work, it is not so infuriating to  have 
hours reduced.  Also, it permits the company to send people home when  there 
are fewer customers.  
 
I know a nice man who worked 25 years for the now-defunct Mervyn's  chain.  
He seldom got 40 hours of work and never a regular schedule.  
 
I got a good dose of the retail world working for the Department of Labor,  
where I'd investigate large chain stores who somehow persuaded their 
employees  that they were "managers" and therefore exempt from overtime.  One 
chain  had people working 56-hour weeks with nothing but salary.  When we busted 
 them it was their third violation.  
 
Ever wonder why people like public employment?  Perhaps because  corporate 
greed is largely absent--or at least substantially reduced.
 
M. McGrorty
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