Petrol stations docking staff pay for drive offs

[MIXONE]

BP NZ (at least the ones I have worked at in the Wellington region) do have ANPR and the system is as hayden described.

Yep and it's nationwide.

[Berries]

Maybe this is a lesson to work harder at school?

[mossy1200]

Maybe this is a lesson to work harder at school?

If everyone was a high achiever then who would do the manual labour.
Lesson is if you own a business to make a profit you should accept the financial risks that go with it.
Adding clauses in contracts because people who want and need to work will sign them doesn't make it morally correct.

[mada]

Maybe this is a lesson to work harder at school?

More likely an indicator that some people need to be taught ethics and morals, cos they clearly have none - that goes for horrible bosses and horrible employees alike.

[R650R]

More likely an indicator that some people need to be taught ethics and morals, cos they clearly have none - that goes for horrible bosses and horrible employees alike.

Yes agree 100%

As for people working harder in school.... that's all very well but life throws a few curveballs from time to time no matter how well on track you think you are.
In transport industry I've seen all sorts of people working there you wouldn't expect; more than a few ex cops, special forces soldiers( couple of genuine ones, not the bullshitters), inventor and owner of cleaning products factory, property investor, various former management execs...
If your a people person and work in the right shop it can be quite a rewarding job for many, especially as its mostly retail now and no pumping gas or checking oil etc.

The thing I don't get though, is the guy on the news was saying if$100 gas was stolen, he would be docked $100. But gas stations have insurance, and they have accountants. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if a shop writes off goods as stolen, they don't have to pay tax's on the goods, so $100 at the pump, only costs the station $50, so they still make a profit when docking pay.

Actually I hope they have been doing this, an IRD audit should show it up, claiming lost stock but not declaring the docked wages.
Also the docking of wages would affect (minutely) holiday pay and kiwisaver calculations too. Its one thing to dock the pay but those hours actually worked still contribute to the previously mentioned stuff.
And if claimed on any insurance scheme while docking wages that would be insurance fraud, a conviction for that means uninsurable and out of business.
I hope the appropriate people sink their teeth into this...

[GrayWolf]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/bett...driveoffs.html

Maybe these good employers should look at extending their great policy to cover robberies too. Pretty sure most low paid workers are able to prevent them from happening 99% of the time.

Depends on the company (I 'managed' a BP station in the UK for a couple of years) most fuel company owned service stations, the cashiers had to count EVERY item of stock (sweets, ciggies, oil etc) at each shift change. Any 'shortfall' of stock was charged to the cashier who's shift it occoured on.
There was a robbery at another 'nearby' BP, and the cashier on duty was literally treated as guilty of collusion. Most of the companies had a max 50 pounds (notes) in the till at any time. However early morning/eveneing when people are commuting, it wasnt unusual for there to be way over that as the cashier can be too busy with customers.... the exact time this one got robbed... so the cashier immediately got accused of deliberately having excess cash in the till, and a strong threat from corporate bosses to dock them for the excess over 50 pounds......

Eventually it was sorted out, but what a bunch of assholes.

[MD]

I worked many hours at servos at night when a teen and through my 20s (70s and 80s man!) to supplement my meagre income. Never heard of this disgusting practice of docking the worker. I must have had good bosses. We did have the odd drive off and shoplifting. I did my best to spot it and stop it but I guess it wasn't so prevalent back then. More thieving bastards around these days.

Funny how PC people are quick to say don't be a racist, don't stereotype someone by their looks or scruffy dress sense. Yet again and again they were the ones that stole? Go figure. I could spot them a mile away. I'd shadow them as they hung around the servo displays (targeting cigs and the like). They'd get all pissed off that you wouldn't take your eye off them and mumble, grumble about shit and leave without buying anything.

Look like a scumbag, act like a scum bag, 99% you are a scumbag.

edit- and this Masterton arsehole owner claiming the employees should try harder to chase them down! He's watched too many re-runs of Starsky and Hutch. No way can a lone employee leave the till and run off chasing who knows how many thieves and risk his/her life for a few dollars and all the while the entire servo/goods/till is abandoned for all to help themselves? How's that going to work.
That was my biggest headache when we were supposed to go out to pour gas which meant leaving creeps loitering in the shop area. You couldn't be in two places at once and scum played on that.

[Ocean1]

More likely an indicator that some people need to be taught ethics and morals, cos they clearly have none - that goes for horrible bosses and horrible employees alike.

Perfectly correct. This isn't about employers / employees, there's plenty of arseholes in any relationships of any sort, professional and otherwise.

Institute an arsehole free policy in your workplace, I guarantee it will measurably improve your life.

Having said that, does anyone seriously believe this latest bullshit is anything but a response to bullshit petty employee theft?

[Virago]

...does anyone seriously believe this latest bullshit is anything but a response to bullshit petty employee theft?

Campbell Live on TV3 has covered this story over the last two nights. The contract clause in question stated "...the right to recover costs associated with dishonesty". While it actually referred to the dishonesty of the employee, some arsehole managers used the ambiguous wording to include the dishonesty of others.

Despite frantic claims otherwise, the practice appears to have been used across all the major fuel companies. Whilst the companies are now ducking for cover, the complaints from employees are flooding in from around the country. The true extent of the issue has yet to be realised.

Interviews on Campbell Live with employment law experts have confirmed that the practice is 100% illegal, regardless of the wording of any contract.

[R650R]

I worked many hours at servos at night when a teen and through my 20s (70s and 80s man!) to supplement my meagre income. Never heard of this disgusting practice of docking the worker. I must have had good bosses. We did have the odd drive off and shoplifting. I did my best to spot it and stop it but I guess it wasn't so prevalent back then. More thieving bastards around these days.

Funny how PC people are quick to say don't be a racist, don't stereotype someone by their looks or scruffy dress sense. Yet again and again they were the ones that stole? Go figure. I could spot them a mile away. I'd shadow them as they hung around the servo displays (targeting cigs and the like). They'd get all pissed off that you wouldn't take your eye off them and mumble, grumble about shit and leave without buying anything.

Look like a scumbag, act like a scum bag, 99% you are a scumbag.

edit- and this Masterton arsehole owner claiming the employees should try harder to chase them down! He's watched too many re-runs of Starsky and Hutch. No way can a lone employee leave the till and run off chasing who knows how many thieves and risk his/her life for a few dollars and all the while the entire servo/goods/till is abandoned for all to help themselves? How's that going to work.
That was my biggest headache when we were supposed to go out to pour gas which meant leaving creeps loitering in the shop area. You couldn't be in two places at once and scum played on that.

100% agree. And no its not racist couse you get thieving Pakeha who act and dress in the same manner. Its just a function of statistics and the downfalls of modern society that there may be more offenders from certain demographics, nothing for the honest people to feel guilty about. By the same token there are poor people of same ethnic backgrounds who dress similar but pay their bills, talk nicely and don't act suspiciously.
I had a work colleague nutting off once about his son being persecuted by the police because of race. Long story short he had liquor in a liquor ban area and got cheeky to cop and got dealt appropriately. Told him the story of a pakeha uncle of mine who is the bad apple of the family and his dealings with cops were the same.... all about attitude and actions not skin colour.

I used to work sole charge on the fringe of Camberley/Flaxmere. Had no qualms about switching the pump off for certain people, never really caused problems, people knew what the score was.
We had lot of regular customer so most understood if you were staying in store for something feral. Boss was real tough guy and he taught me how to just ask are you going to buy anything to loiterers and if no ask them firmly to leave, always worked and they generally didn't come back.

This was back in te day of 80 cents a litre, used to be lot more declined eftpos cards/scams, dud cheques than drive offs.

[R650R]

Having said that, does anyone seriously believe this latest bullshit is anything but a response to bullshit petty employee theft?

With that sort of attitude its probably why you're getting the wrong employees working for you...
From time to time I've had dodgy co-workers at one place or another... surprise surprise its at the minimum wage type places where there's no goodwill from the employer.
Pay peanuts and you get monkeys (or magpies)....
Had one boss where the money wasn't great but he would fill our cars up with gas and get us crates of veges.... nothing ever went missing at that place. Although one new worker did 'borrow' my car while I was in Auckland. He was dealt to and gone before I got back, guess they didn't want to clean up the mess...

One late night Mobil I used to stop at for Diesel and coffee had this awesome American chap working the late shift, ex Boeing employee. He pointed out one day there were more cameras pointed at him than the cars on the forecourt...

[Ocean1]

If everyone was a high achiever then who would do the manual labour.
Lesson is if you own a business to make a profit you should accept the financial risks that go with it.
Adding clauses in contracts because people who want and need to work will sign them doesn't make it morally correct.

Very few people want to do manual labour. There's a huge number of opportunities for your average kid to avoid having to do it, but there's an even greater number of kids that don't bother taking those opportunities and don't bother doing any labour either, manual or otherwise. So the number of people wanting or needing such work are fucking thin on the ground, and mostly people who cbf doing their homework and who can't convince work and income to fund them to not work. Not, perhaps the basis on which to build a business.

Also not ideal is the fact that those financial risks aren't covered by profit, because there is no profit in selling gas. It's an artificial market, the suppliers dictate the price of the product and the buyers are chained to a business loan at usurious prices. If the market was free then there’d be opportunity for retailers to source their gas from whoever offered the best deal. But that’s not the case.

[Big Dog]

Twelve years ago cameras were almost exclusively for ship shrinkage and armed robbery. Too low res for anything other than proof of what you caught them doing. By ten years ago there was a major improvement in recoding
Medium. Ie Hdds. Exterior cameras got cheaper and drive offs became epidemic. Most gasses I visit now have better investment in forecourt observation than shop observation.

In 2003 buying a single forecourt camera to add to my installation would have cost more than an entire new system did in 2004.


Stupid phone / Tapatalk, apologies in advance.

[Ocean1]

With that sort of attitude its probably why you're getting the wrong employees working for you...
From time to time I've had dodgy co-workers at one place or another... surprise surprise its at the minimum wage type places where there's no goodwill from the employer.

Campbell Live on TV3 has covered this story over the last two nights. The contract clause in question stated "...the right to recover costs associated with dishonesty". While it actually referred to the dishonesty of the employee, some arsehole managers used the ambiguous wording to include the dishonesty of others.

This isn't about employers / employees, there's plenty of arseholes in any relationships of any sort, professional and otherwise.

Institute an arsehole free policy in your workplace, I guarantee it will measurably improve your life.

And I don't have employees, the compliance costs in terms of risk and time make it simply too difficult.

[mossy1200]

Very few people want to do manual labour. There's a huge number of opportunities for your average kid to avoid having to do it, but there's an even greater number of kids that don't bother taking those opportunities and don't bother doing any labour either, manual or otherwise. So the number of people wanting or needing such work are fucking thin on the ground, and mostly people who cbf doing their homework and who can't convince work and income to fund them to not work. Not, perhaps the basis on which to build a business.

Also not ideal is the fact that those financial risks aren't covered by profit, because there is no profit in selling gas. It's an artificial market, the suppliers dictate the price of the product and the buyers are chained to a business loan at usurious prices. If the market was free then there’d be opportunity for retailers to source their gas from whoever offered the best deal. But that’s not the case.

I understand what your saying but theres not room for 4 million bosses and no workers in the country.
Moving the level of education up doesn't create anything other than a increase in overqualified people working jobs below their skill level.

As for financial risks not covered by profit. Not an excuse for treating staff as an insurance policy.