American here. I have a job where they have a perk where you submit receipts through their app or website and you earn points you can cash out at some point if you shop with clients of our company. Sounds like a nice little promotional incentive, right?
Well, they say it’s optional but it’s not. You can apparently get in trouble for not using this and we’ve been pulled aside about it and warned we must use this stupid thing.
The idea is the app you install must be given permission to see your location at all times. It then checks the area to ensure you are favoring clients of our company as opposed to our competitors when you shop. When you shop at one of our clients, you must report your receipt to the company showing everything you bought while there. Even if you are buying gas, you need to report it.
I don’t participate in this invasion of privacy. I actually want to put less of my data out there in general, not more. I don’t even have a grocery store discount card. We were told in a meeting this week that promotions in this company are influenced by how much/if you participate in the program. We were told people have been denied promotions because they did not participate in this program.
If I’m off the clock they don’t get to decide what I do. They can fuck themselves. And I am surely not giving them a little report of what I buy. But saying we are ineligible for career advancement within the company unless we buy groceries, gas, etc from preferred vendors seems sketchy. Is this legal?
This sounds like a company store with extra steps. IANAL but it sounds extremely illegal for your employer to dictate what you do with your wages in any way, including linking it to career advancement. I highly doubt this is a union job, so your best bet might be to talk to a labor attorney. Do not talk to the company’s HR dept., because they don’t work for you; they work for your employer.
Agreed, the company is just waiting out a class action lawsuit where they will only end up paying 20% of what they’ve made as legal punishment; a scam old as time. I would wonder if they’ve put this in writing or could be recorded demanding the employees do these behaviors.
the last meeting was recorded but we can’t access the recordings. I might be able to snag a recording myself but then it becomes really cagey as to whether such evidence can but used so its a risk with no benefit.
Ohio is a single party consent state, so as long as at least one person in a conversation consents to being recorded, it is legal to record the conversation. And you can count as that single party. So as long as you participate in the conversation, you can record it without telling any other participants.
Just quietly set your phone to record a voice memo, and keep it nearby.
THIS
Try to get this in writing, or document your day-to-day with this. Focus on the retaliation, the instances they tell you how you’re supposed to spend your money and maybe get coworkers to back you up and write that down.
The more clear evidence, the better. Lawyers love when you have a bunch of evidence in writing. Especially if it’s emails or similar directly from them that prove your case.