Is My Work Doing Something Illegal?

[Smooth Operator]

If they were asking for something that is actually yours then that would be questionable, but that card is always the property of your employer so they can ask for it at any time.

It's a retarded system they put in place, but they are allowed to be as retarded with their own shit as they please.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The thing is that those scanner guns are worth a pretty penny, and people stealing them to sell them on is a Thing That Actually Happens. (I've also found a thread where someone bragged about changing the price of headphones using one of these scanners; from my experience, that may actually be doable.) So yeah, if they've been having problems with the Telxons going missing, then I can see where they'd tighten up access to them- if for no other reason then to know who to blame when one "disappears". And as others have said, that discount card is technically the store's property (you don't get to keep it if you quit), so they can mandate whatever they like involving it.

 

[OneCatch]

Is it legal for my work to hold my Discount Card hostage just to allow me access to THE most important tool in the store?

Almost certainly legal. Generally discount cards come with disclaimers saying that the company retains ownership of the card and that they can be withdrawn at their discretion.
If it were your personal property (wallet, cash, credit cards, ID) then you'd probably have a case, but since it isn't, you don't.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Its been said before that your Discount Card isn't your property and therefore not subject to terms of ownership. What it is, in more legal terms, is a perk. Your employer is not required to give you any perks by law, only pay you a wage at minimum or above, ensure that taxes, medicare and social security are also paid properly and whatever else your state's law requires. That is all they have to do (except required breaks if you're underage and maybe overtime if your state law covers that). If they choose to withhold your perk to ensure that a valuable and expensive piece of company equipment isn't lost, abused or stolen then they're perfectly in the right and you've no right to complain about it. If anything, your fellow employees who failed to take care of the equipment are the people you should be unhappy with, not your employer who is in the right.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I agree with the other posts so far, as I also feel the discount card is a privilege that the company reserves the right to revoke at any time for any reason.

The question I have is who the hell continuously loses these things if they're so useful to the point management felt it necessary to hand in your discount card when checking one out on top of having to check and sign it out in the first place. One would think the chain of accountability ends once you actually know who signed out which Telxon. I'd be suspicious if management just decided to start that program one day on a lark since it almost feels like villifying the sales representatives. You know, guilty until proven innocent so we're just going to hold your discount card while you use this device to keep you people from your thieving, irresponsible ways.

There are quite a few silly people out there who steal them. This is probably because they think it is valuable either in itself or that it gives full access to all stores' functions like price changes so they could steal value over time from any location. If you ever go into pawn shops, you'll sometimes see them there after the thief gave up/found out how worthless it is to non staff that can't finalize price changes.

 

[Stg]

There is no reason for you to have your discount card on you while you're working - especially if it is a store-issued card. They are simply doing this as an incentive to get them back so someone won't try to sell them to someone else and just say they "lost it".

Bottom line is it's not illegal. It's just their way of ensuring they get their device back and if someone is so irresponsible as to lose the one tool they need for their job, then they don't deserve a discount. If you still feel uneasy about it, think of it this way: a UPS driver needs their scanner to tell their hub which packages have been delivered as well as hold the digital signatures of those who require them for the package. If the driver simply lost their scanner, they could not do their job (well technically they could but they would have no records of what was dropped off and what wasn't).

 

[-Dragmire-]

Its been said before that your Discount Card isn't your property and therefore not subject to terms of ownership. What it is, in more legal terms, is a perk. Your employer is not required to give you any perks by law, only pay you a wage at minimum or above, ensure that taxes, medicare and social security are also paid properly and whatever else your state's law requires. That is all they have to do (except required breaks if you're underage and maybe overtime if your state law covers that). If they choose to withhold your perk to ensure that a valuable and expensive piece of company equipment isn't lost, abused or stolen then they're perfectly in the right and you've no right to complain about it. If anything, your fellow employees who failed to take care of the equipment are the people you should be unhappy with, not your employer who is in the right.

The only way I could see it as a legal issue is from a discrimination angle which is probably why they went with a sign out system. I don't think an employer can single out an employee as the only person who is subject to potentially giving up perks. As long as the system applies to everyone without exception then you can show the person with less perks got that way as a result of their actions and not some kind of prejudice.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

The only way I could see it as a legal issue is from a discrimination angle which is probably why they went with a sign out system. I don't think an employer can single out an employee as the only person who is subject to potentially giving up perks. As long as the system applies to everyone without exception then you can show the person with less perks got that way as a result of their actions and not some kind of prejudice.

I think if there's something in their policies that employees would have to sign before being hired that states they can be put on a probationary status if they get written up or something along those lines then they could potentially get away with it as it would be a clause of their employment. I'm sure Walmart has enough legal experience to know what they can and can't do to their employees.

 

[FFHAuthor]

Nope, nothing illegal about it. If what you're talking about is something like the scan guns at my work, we're talking about a few grand each. My workplace had us handing over our drivers licences because so many of these things were going missing.

 

[haplo99]

I used to be a manager at walmart, bottom line is you don't own the card, you are in effect just looking after it for walmart so that you may take advantage of the benefits it affords you. They can and will take it off you or any other employee for any reason they see fit and they are in no way required to ever give it back to you.

As I remember, the telxons log out of the associates account after been left unused for a lil bit, and unless you know the system, finding some of the things in the menus can be a pain so for rice changing, I'd say their usage is limited anything past one or 2 items, and you can't discount something THAT much without it setting off alarms in the system anyway. But people do lose them all the time, and have them stolen and they ARE very expensive to have to keep replacing.

Unless the rules have changed since I was there, you HAD to keep it with you a all times, no leaving it on a shelf while you went down the way to work, or even to the next aisle, but I know from my own expeience walking round other walmarts just how many you find laying around with no associate even nearby, neer mind next aisle.

back onto topic, the legality is it belongs to them, you have no rights of ownership over the discount card. You have expectations to not lose, damage or misuse the card, but those are on you not walmart.

yea it's shitty, but instead of riling at walmart for basically trying not to lose more money, like someone else said, find the people who caused this to be instituted by their lack of care over store property

 

[Lilani]

It's bad enough with what we have to do just to get our hands on a Telxon, but now you want to hold my Discount Card hostage just to ensure I will be responsible with it? Seriously!?

So yeah, that is what I question the legality of.

Is it legal for my work to hold my Discount Card hostage just to allow me access to THE most important tool in the store?

I thank in advance all who answer.

Is your discount card something which, in the hiring contract you signed, you have an inalienable right to? Like a lunch break or benefits? Or is it something that's a privilege which they can take away at their discretion? That will indicate whether or not it's legal.

I also think it's a pretty extreme measure, but unfortunately it is very likely within their rights to do so.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I don't really know one way or another if that's legal.

I do know the only time I worked in a large retail store (even though I was not retail staff as such, I still worked in a section of the store doing computer repairs)

I found it pretty extreme there that anyone coming in to work or leaving had to be checked with a metal detector by someone in security...
(We also had to sign in with serial numbers and such any items of technology we had on us - eg. phones, laptops, etc.)

That's pretty extreme, but it seems the staff were often caught stealing things...

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I don't really know one way or another if that's legal.

I do know the only time I worked in a large retail store (even though I was not retail staff as such, I still worked in a section of the store doing computer repairs)

I found it pretty extreme there that anyone coming in to work or leaving had to be checked with a metal detector by someone in security...
(We also had to sign in with serial numbers and such any items of technology we had on us - eg. phones, laptops, etc.)

That's pretty extreme, but it seems the staff were often caught stealing things...

*deep breath, braces self for torrent of hell coming his way for admitting this* I worked for Hot Topic back in 2000, before it was super-trendy and such (though it was getting there).
They had a store policy, and still do as far as I am aware, that you couldn't leave the site without a bag and pockets check. Even when I had to chase a shoplifter out of the store to alert mall security I had to get a quick patdown. I liked the job though honestly, I was good at it. It became too much to get there every day though because I rode the bus and it was 2 miles from my house to the bus station.
Pretty petty but employees stole from the store all the time anyway. I didn't, and I don't believe there's any point to stealing not even in protest. Its just a self-justification for being a thief.

 

[Artaneius]

I don't think the OP is going to bother replying to any of us. Maybe the thread should just be closed, looks like he was just looking for people to agree with him.

 

[CrystalShadow]

I don't really know one way or another if that's legal.

I do know the only time I worked in a large retail store (even though I was not retail staff as such, I still worked in a section of the store doing computer repairs)

I found it pretty extreme there that anyone coming in to work or leaving had to be checked with a metal detector by someone in security...
(We also had to sign in with serial numbers and such any items of technology we had on us - eg. phones, laptops, etc.)

That's pretty extreme, but it seems the staff were often caught stealing things...

*deep breath, braces self for torrent of hell coming his way for admitting this* I worked for Hot Topic back in 2000, before it was super-trendy and such (though it was getting there).
They had a store policy, and still do as far as I am aware, that you couldn't leave the site without a bag and pockets check. Even when I had to chase a shoplifter out of the store to alert mall security I had to get a quick patdown. I liked the job though honestly, I was good at it. It became too much to get there every day though because I rode the bus and it was 2 miles from my house to the bus station.
Pretty petty but employees stole from the store all the time anyway. I didn't, and I don't believe there's any point to stealing not even in protest. Its just a self-justification for being a thief.

I agree. I found it a pretty sad situation that staff members were stealing stuff often enough that this had become standard practice.

Then again I also found out (It was a large computer/technology store in the UK) that they budgeted for losing £10,000 in stock a month to theft!

(And they used checks of how many computer games had gone missing to determine when to do stock checks...)

That's pretty disturbing...