My 20 year old daughter, Laura, was hired as seasonal help for the 2005 holidays in NYS. A few weeks after she was hired they asked if she would stay as permanent part time after the holidays, and she happily agreed. Laura was told by the store manager that she was best liked by the three managers- thus the offer to stay.

After working about a month, she began being scheduled so she'd have to close the store (working alone; taking the bank deposit out of the mall and down the highway approximately 5 miles to the store bank) and open the store (again, working alone, going to the bank for change before work) .
The fact Laura gets paid for none of this "bank time" is not an issue for us. The manager, who's a nice enough young woman but is a 24 year old who is not quite grown up yet, is evasive when my daughter asks if she's legally covered while carrying the store's money, since she's not a member of the mamagement team.

There are two assistant managers, both of whom are younger than the manager and one of whom can and would close every day. One of them has significant time restraints as she's a new mother and won't leave the baby with anyone but her husband. I applaud this personally, but this means that most days she can neither open or close. There are also two other part time employees, neither of whom are being asked to open or close, thus never going to the bank.

Laura is highly responsible and has a wonderful work ethic- I can see why her boss would like to give these responsibilities to her. Yesterday after Laura stood firm and said she couldn't close anymore, she discovered to her dismay she's scheduled for only one day next week and one day the following week, both days requiring that she close and make the bank run. Her usual week is a five day work week, and I believe her boss is being punitive in a most immature manner. Laura has heard her boss make reference before about employees who ask for specific hours off, saying she'll just give them no hours and see if that will make them more cooperative in the future. The days my daughter is scheduled in the next two weeks are both Sundays, a day which was agreed upon at hiring she'd not have to work for religious reasons. She did cover a couple of Sundays for emergencies during Christmas store madness- she's not inflexible. She also is the only employee working the next two Sundays, which means she begins work at 9:00 and finishes at 7:00 without being able to leave the store at all, and pretty effectively shooting down any chance for a break. Even this she doesn't mind, but she's quite uncomfortable carrying money that doesn't belong to her without knowing her legal status there.

I apologize for the lengthy question- I wanted to give you a sort of picture as to what's happening, really.

Thanks so much. Laura is reluctant to approach her boss's boss, feeling this will only worsen things. She did try to speak to her boss and got nowhere. Any help is appreciated. I know it's tough when you have no idea what company policy is at Things Remembered, but unfortunately Laura can't find out much, either.

With most sincere gratitude, and apologies if this is the wrong thread- Ellie

I apologize if I missed it in the length of the thread, but I'm not quite certain exactly what your question is?

If it's whether the employer is violating any laws, they aren't. I'm not saying that the boss is not behaving immaturely, but I'm not seeing anything that gives Laura legal recourse.