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?
When asking about laws, it is essential to say where you live. Different places have different laws. After a look through your recent posts, it appears you live in Ohio. These practices probably violate specific laws in Ohio.
One of them is ORC 2903.216 (B) (1), which prohibits causing a tracking device or application to monitor a person’s movement without their consent.
The other is ORC 1345.02 (A), which prohibits unfair or deceptive trade practices. It’s a bit more open to interpretation, but something makes me think a judge would not be amused.
Anyway, I’m not a lawyer, and it sounds like you need one. It’s not rare that lawyers offer free consultations to determine if you have a real case.
Well I don’t know what a lawyer would actually do for me here. I haven’t suffered any damages yet. Doesn’t it have to directly impact me first, then I would have a case? The whole thing is about things NOT happening to me, eg NOT getting promoted.
A lawyer could point you in the right direction. Not all legal action is necessarily “damages” (also, the lack of a promotion is damages—if your boss says to you “You’re my most skilled employee, but I don’t want to give you a promotion because you’re a woman”, that’s unlawful discrimination in any place that prohibits sexism. Of course in the vast majority of cases it is much harder to prove since the boss won’t actually explicitly say that, but you get the principle of the law); legal action can be to correct a wrong, in this case changing company policy to ensure that employees are not discriminated against on the basis of not using this app. You can just explain the situation over email to a law firm that deals with labour law, and if perhaps you’d be better served by a different law firm for instance, they will be able to point you in that direction.
A consultation with a lawyer will tell you what, if anything a lawyer will do for you. Pressure consisting of implied loss of opportunity is probably enough.
Alternately, you might not have a case, and a consultation will tell you that too.
This is lawyer territory. Randos on the internet will not be able to help.
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What I hear when I hear “company store”.
And finally, a slightly more updated version
Assuming this is real, you can potentially get quite a bit of money off this. Talk to an employment lawyer for free consultation and see if you can get terminated for not following this procedure. You’ll need to document evidence of the company pressuring you to use the app.
It doesn’t even have to be illegal for this to work. It only has to be unreasonably outside your job responsibilities.
While others are focusing on the legal aspect, which I guess is the question you actually asked, my first thought was bare minimum compliance while gathering evidence. Grab an old phone, wipe it completely, install the app with all new credentials not tied to you in any way, then just leave it running at work. They get their location data, just not anything usable, you get to submit a minimum number of receipts that doesn’t get you in trouble from purchases you would have made anyway, or not because why support scumbag companies. You get to gather more hard evidence of their assholery that way. Never install work apps on your personal phone. If they require something for your job, they should provide the hardware to run it on.
Name and shame, please.
I will if and when I leave. Right now I need the money so I’m basically their slave.
Saint Peter dont you call me, cause I can’t go I sold so my soul to the company store.
Yeah that shits probably illegal on some level but I’d call a lawyer.
It sounds like the employees are the bottom level of some kind of scam. A company that has so little faith in itself that it forces their employees to act as customers is either on the verge of ruin or just completely unethical. They’re definitely getting some kind of kick backs from this.
I’m sure they have found some kind of shitty technical loophole that makes it legal somehow, but you might still report it anonymously to the employment commission since it is 100% unethical and a serious conflict of interests.
Either way if possible find somewhere else to work as soon as you can. Once these people have bilked you out of as much of your paycheck as they can they will decide your no longer a valuable company asset
I am not a lawyer, and I am not your lawyer.
Off the top of my head, I can’t really see where or how this is illegal in most US jurisdictions. In “at will” states you can be hired or fired at any time for any reason* or no reason. And likewise you can quit at any time for any reason or no reason. If you can be hired or fired based on this scam, you can be promoted or held back based on it.
Having said that, this is really scammy, and I would not want to work there.
*except discrimination based on: race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (>40), or genetics. Likewise, retaliation for unlawful sexual harassment.
Seems like a story some newspaper would like to report on
Except they bought all the newspapers.
Damn, Elon’s company town is barely a week old and others are already introducing scrip. I knew it was going to be inevitable but this is way faster than even I anticipated.
