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Report Reveals Numerous Cases of Amazon Workers Being Treated in Ways That Leave Them Homeless, Unable To Work or Bereft of Income After Workplace Accidents (theguardian.com)
Several readers have shared a report: Vickie Shannon Allen, 49, started working at Amazon as a counter in a fulfillment warehouse at Haslet, Texas, in May 2017. At first, like many employees, Allen was excited by the idea of working for one of the fastest growing corporations in the world. That feeling dissipated quickly after a few months. [...] Nor is Allen alone. A Guardian investigation has revealed numerous cases of Amazon workers suffering from workplace accidents or injuries in its gigantic warehouse system and being treated in ways that leave them homeless, unable to work or bereft of income.
Allen's story began on 24 October last year when she injured her back counting goods on a workstation that was missing a brush guard, a piece of safety equipment meant to prevent products from falling onto the floor. She used a tote bin to try to compensate for the missing brush guard, and hurt her back while counting in an awkward position. The injury was the beginning of an ongoing ordeal she is still working to amend at Amazon. Over the course of a few weeks, Amazon's medical triage area gave her use of a heating pad to use on her back, while Amazon management sent her home each day without pay until Allen pushed for workers compensation. "I tried to work again, but I couldn't stretch my right arm out and I'm right-handed. So I was having a hard time keeping up. This went on for about three weeks," Allen said. Despite not getting paid, Allen was spending her own money to drive 60 miles one way to the warehouse each day just to be sent home. Once on workers compensation, Allen started going to physical therapy. In January 2018, she returned to work and injured herself again on the same workstation that still was not fixed.
Allen's story began on 24 October last year when she injured her back counting goods on a workstation that was missing a brush guard, a piece of safety equipment meant to prevent products from falling onto the floor. She used a tote bin to try to compensate for the missing brush guard, and hurt her back while counting in an awkward position. The injury was the beginning of an ongoing ordeal she is still working to amend at Amazon. Over the course of a few weeks, Amazon's medical triage area gave her use of a heating pad to use on her back, while Amazon management sent her home each day without pay until Allen pushed for workers compensation. "I tried to work again, but I couldn't stretch my right arm out and I'm right-handed. So I was having a hard time keeping up. This went on for about three weeks," Allen said. Despite not getting paid, Allen was spending her own money to drive 60 miles one way to the warehouse each day just to be sent home. Once on workers compensation, Allen started going to physical therapy. In January 2018, she returned to work and injured herself again on the same workstation that still was not fixed.
This is the free market at work. Exactly as intended by the corporations in charge.
this is why they keep jacking the price of prime
why can't you just be happy to be employed
They should unionize. Honestly, what do they have to lose at this point? A job that leaves you unable to work?
I have an Amazon fulfillment center near me and after looking at some of the requirements for their professional job listings and hearing stories from people in my network I decided that I would stay well clear of them. They seem to be on the low end of the work/life balance quality spectrum as well as paying peanuts.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Or maybe they could be fighting for food in Venezuelan late-stage socialism.
....cheap... for the modern communist to still be able to afford soy lates and dream of other people paying for their stuff.
Communism, the great way for EVERYONE to be poor. *
* = except for the party elite.
Worker pay and benefits climbing at fastest pace in 10 years, ECI finds
Does anyone have any idea what could have happened 10 years ago that caused worker pay and benefits to stagnate for a whole damn decade?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Go work for McDonald's.
I suggest we start with anonymous slashdot posters.
+1
Some stories deserve sympathy, but at 49, she can fuck off.
This entire article about a company abusing its employees is emotional twat waffling. We are here for technology, go circle jerk your societal gas bag gossipers somewhere else like an old womans knitting circle, they love that sort of stuff. When you have code, that is for us, not the sewing circle. When you can figure out the difference between the two I might come back, but for now, hello reddits subredit on javascript, you give me the warm fuzzies while this place makes my gut ache with all the stupid.
Better publishing, better modding, less overhead on the processors. Real news for nerds. Slashdot could be like that.
That's all I have to say.
Amazon Under Fire Over Alleged Worker Abuse in Germany
Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers
Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers..."
Look, I'm the first person to yell about poor working conditions for Amazon factory workers, but this particular cited case dances on a fine line. If the equipment you are provided does not let you do your job adequately, you raise that up to management as high as it is required to go, usually the equipment gets repaired. If not, instead of spending the gas to drive 120 miles and not get paid, or let your back get hurt by picking things up constantly, you spend $30 and buy a laundry guard and use that until they fix your workstation. 120 miles at 20 miles a gallon is 6 gallons of gas at $3 is $18 a day. After 2 days, you spent less on the laundry guard and didn't hurt your back.
Unions would help.
Yeh, we paid the bankers for their failure.
No they are not. We can follow their posting history and see if they have a history of posting inflammatory garbage. With yourself we just have to assume it instead.
Let's send this one. Seems ripe for the plucking.
I certainly believe that she was treated unfairly, but if she returned after recovery to work on the same broken machine, why did she believe that things would end differently, that she would not be injured in the same manner again? Even if she were just not smart enough to know any better, her supervisor would seem to me to be criminally negligent in not having a machine repaired that injured her before and then returning her to that machine. And by "criminally negligent", I mean that he knowingly placed her in a situation that he knew world harm her.
Something does not seem right here.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
The hysteria of frequent media smear pieces notwithstanding, it's tough to take articles like this seriously at face-value. Lots of broad generalizations and impossible-to-prove (or disprove) allegations of straight-line relationships between an alleged safety issue with an employer, and outcomes like homelessness or disabling injury.
Unfortunately, part of my job is working with EPLI (Employment Practices Liability Insurance) carriers and risk managers. For every actual issue reported, there are multiple instances of people "gaming the system", fraudulently claiming workplace injury or discrimination, or filing repeated false HR reports to attempt to build up a "history" of abuses, being terminated for their bulls**t, and then pointing to that "history" as the REASON for their termination. Maybe I'm just too used to seeing the seedy underside of the Workers' Comp business, but to take light-on-details reports like this, and draw inferences of chronically deficient, or criminal, practices on the part of the large employer, is hard.
Most employees want to do a good job, be fairly compensated, and be appreciated at work. But a small percentage view work as a scam. Those aren't just the ones that spoil the party for everyone, but they're ALSO the ones most likely to turn up in press reports, because "going loud" and getting a company to pay them to go away is part-and-parcel of the scam.
If these folks were legitimately injured and abused by dumb-ass managers at Amazon, then I feel for them. But it's equally likely that a papercut became a "permanently debilitating hand injury", if historical reports like this are any guideline. Sad, but true.
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Whenever I believe my opinion of humanity can't get any lower, some asshat will go and say something like this.
but they are supported, by their mothers upstairs, and not reproducing.
Look, I'm as libertarded as they come, but come on. Not every worker can graduate to middle management by 40. Some manual labour still has to be done these days, no reason to abuse the workers.
As is clear from the graph in your linked article, the start of the recovery from the recession after 8 years of GOP fiscal policy. Have no fear, the GOP will make American great (for the wealthy) again.
failure? there were some huge wins for certain bankers. look at the whole picture.
I believe parent's slight was mocking something else, not anonymity.
She used a tote bin to try to compensate for the missing brush guard, and hurt her back while counting in an awkward position.
So instead of alerting someone and getting the dangerous condition fixed, she tried to work around it herself and got hurt.
In January 2018, she returned to work and injured herself again on the same workstation that still was not fixed.
Good grief. You'd like to credit her with enough intelligence not to just turn around and do exactly the same thing that had just put her on the lam for 3 months, but then you'd probably have to conclude she was fishing for a payout from the big A.
She currently lives out of her car in the parking lot of the Amazon fulfillment center. “They cost me my home, they screwed me over and over and I go days without eating.”
Or then again, maybe she's just a bit... off.
sue him for whatever they can get Bezos on, if he is mistreating his employees he could end up in federal prison
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
1) OSHA. If it's a safety violation, don't just ignore it (or jury-rig a solution)--call it in.
2) It took her "a few weeks" to "push for" workman's comp? That's a day-one call. If you don't get it, you call the state Dept. of Labor (whatever the name is in that particular state).
3) When she came back, the guard was still not in place? a) refuse to work until it's fixed. b) see point (1).
Would a union help this? Probably. But unions also come with downsides (I've been a member of 3 unions and interacted with a few hundred). The plaintiff could have dealt with this a long time ago if she'd just called the appropriate government agencies--they *love* to fine big corporations for safety violations. Unions fought for--and got--these laws. But they're meaningless if people don't use them to protect themselves.
Honestly? 10 minutes on Google should have given this woman all the correct answers she needed to solve the issues. The original safety issues fall on Amazon, but after that? Most of her problems are the result of her "waiting for someone to fix it", rather than using the tools available to her.
Don't tell me it's so.
You mean people are working manual labor, sometimes physically demanding and getting minimally compensated for it.
Man this has never before been heard of.
Seriously though, if you get injured on the job, any job, you must report it and file the proper paperwork immediately. There are labor laws and they do protect you, if you use them.
I have found that most the time when someone gets hurt on the job and they don't want to immediately report it as a hindrance to work it is likely due to the fact there will be a drug test pending and possible termination ahead.
There has to be way more to this story.
You're a scumbag.
Speaking of her life choices and I'm sorry to beat a person when they are down, but driving 120 mile round trip for a warehouse job... Really?!? Time to reevaluate some of your decisions in life lady. Perhaps time to move. You are spending a very large portion of your minimum wage job on travel. I can't believe there isn't a gas station, grocery store, hardware store, coffee stand or any number of other small, medium and large businesses in between.
OH FUCK MY LIFE, just looked at Google maps. Yes Amazon is in the wrong here, but his lady is just fucking retarded. This warehouse is about 15 miles from a major city, Fort Worth and an hour from Dallas. Move somewhere else and get another fucking job. ZERO reason to be driving 120 miles a day for a shitty warehouse job. With her lack of good decision making ability, I question how and why Amazon even hired her. She has many 1000s of more options than a lot of the population in America.
Maybe in her brain it went like this
>work for business owned by world's richest man
>drive 60 miles for shitty job and low pay
>get injured at work
>recover
>get injured again
>sue
>retire in luxury from millions of bezo-bux due to settlement from company, in its attempt to avoid (even more) bad press.
Not to defend amazon (they're horrible) or attack someone who's basically down on their luck.. but there must have been a job closer to home that paid a little bit better?
ar ar argy bargy prosperity gospel ar rar protestant work ethic rarrar the poor are evil. That's what you sound like.
As is clear from the graph in your linked article, the start of the recovery from the recession after 8 years of GOP fiscal policy. Have no fear, the GOP will make American great (for the wealthy) again.
So, you're claiming that the non-change from GOP fiscal policy to GOP fiscal policy caused the start of the recovery, but the change from a President who did things like openly stifle oil exploration and literally wage a "war on coal" to a President with policies the exact opposite had no effect?
Do you even believe your own asinine posts?
Geez, the stupid is strong in you.
At 49, actions that wouldn't have caused injury earlier in life start becoming dangerous - repetitive stress injury and various strains due to using body parts that have been inactive for years. She can be forgiven for developing her first injury. Going back and hurting herself again. not so much.
It does appear that Amazon has been a bit callous or careless here; the weeks without pay would not have happened if she had a good manager.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
Something does not seem right here.
Perhaps the world doesn't work in this fair and honest way you seem to be implying? People don't behave in these nice clean ideal ways you want. They go to work and hope things will get better. They don't care about their underling who was injured. They try to pinch pennies and don't really care about anyone but themselves.
I've seen it time and time again. I recall 10+ years ago a former GF was injured at an office job with a paper cut to her eye. I eventually convinced her to go the the ER after she was suffering in pain much of the the night. The ER asked her the standard questions and (rightfully) processed it as workman's comp (which pays the bill). Her office manager got all upset when it was reported as workman's comp! (She working a freaking University, so this was really, really, really not a big deal for the University which doesn't get a lot of workman's comp claims for office work). The office manager was still upset though, and worried about some big investigation.. over a paper cut to her eye from literally handling papers.
The point is, people are very strange when others get injured, and worry they'll somehow be blamed. Even in this minor little incident (which turned out fine, the GF was perfectly healed a couple days later).
Or, she could just live in her car, like other Amazon workers are doing.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Now americans knows how employees from third world countries work and feel. Good luck with that, LOL!!!!!!
Funny how its always "back injuries" that people have, you know the sort of injury that its pretty much impossible to tell if someone is faking it or not. We'll just ignore the fact that back pain is probably one of the most common of human aches and pains.
I have a hard time believing this woman wasn't just trying to get a workman's compensation claim and it backfired on her splendidly.
Maybe read this?
Actually 60 miles would be, say 2 gallons of gas, about $6. Toss in wear and tear on the car and a local job for $1/hr less would still come out ahead.
Fast food and Walmart pay pretty well for entry-level type jobs (~$10/hr), people with brains will generally make manager after a short while, and there always seem to be vacancies. I dunno why someone would pick literal back breaking work over that for less pay, unless they've done something to get blacklisted from retail/food service (caught robbing a cash register once?).
Worker pay and benefits climbing at fastest pace in 10 years, ECI finds
Does anyone have any idea what could have happened 10 years ago that caused worker pay and benefits to stagnate for a whole damn decade?
Anyone?
Bueller?
I'll bite, but the problem started about 20 years ago... With the creation of the "subprime mortgage" which was needed to loan money to unqualified borrowers, backed by two Federally backed mortgage companies. A pile of money got loaned to people who couldn't pay it back and real estate prices shot though the roof as the market was awash in cheap money loaned by banks, converted into questionable securities backed by the fed. Why did banks do this in the first place? Anybody have a clue how this could take place, banks loaning money that would never get paid back?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Here's a hint.... WHO demanded that subprime borrowers be given loans and why?
Here's a statement: What happened at the end of Bush's administration is the house of cards finally fell, but the building of that structure took YEARS so the cause of the problem wasn't the economy and wasn't really Bush's fault (except in that he didn't see and avoid it). The REAL reason happened years before when banks started loaning money to unqualified people and why do you suppose they did that?
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Worker's comp deals with these issues all of the time. There's nothing unique about this case, and nothing unique about it happening at Amazon. Everyone shut up and go home. Typical worker's comp, and the current laws are quite adequate for dealing with it.
I was trying to count these numbers and than I counted too high! Too dam high!
Somebody please halp. Plese get the manager and till him I got hurt countin all these dam numbers
They put me in a awkward position. I was leaning back and strugglin with those abstract dimensionless numbers and this is Amazons fault. I will need severance pay and a settlement and probably therapy for Victims of Number Counting.
She got injured because she didn't speak up or refuse to work (which would've been protected in court), then she eventually got herself on workers comp (which takes 1 doctors visit), she earned money without needing to commute, she got medical expenses paid by ObamaCare. What is the problem exactly?
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Worker pay and benefits climbing at fastest pace in 10 years, ECI finds
Does anyone have any idea what could have happened 10 years ago that caused worker pay and benefits to stagnate for a whole damn decade?
Anyone?
Bueller?
I'll bite, but the problem started about 20 years ago... With the creation of the "subprime mortgage" which was needed to loan money to unqualified borrowers, backed by two Federally backed mortgage companies. A pile of money got loaned to people who couldn't pay it back and real estate prices shot though the roof as the market was awash in cheap money loaned by banks, converted into questionable securities backed by the fed. Why did banks do this in the first place? Anybody have a clue how this could take place, banks loaning money that would never get paid back?
Bueller?
Bueller?
Here's a hint.... WHO demanded that subprime borrowers be given loans and why?
Here's a statement: What happened at the end of Bush's administration is the house of cards finally fell, but the building of that structure took YEARS so the cause of the problem wasn't the economy and wasn't really Bush's fault (except in that he didn't see and avoid it). The REAL reason happened years before when banks started loaning money to unqualified people and why do you suppose they did that?
DEMOCRATS
Barney Frank stating Fannie Mae isn't going to fail:
'These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing."
And, umm, yeah, Bush et al did see it coming:
2003:
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.
And another attempt in 2005:
S. 190 (109th): Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
you first, bootlicker
You, sir, are a fucking moron. Your myopic outlook has fallen to the level of degeneracy.
I mean, at some point occam's razor rings true.
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of such things getting fired. She doesn't live out of her car because she's a little off, she's doing it because she doesn't make enough money to afford a place to live.
People don't expect to be treated this way by a company as large as Amazon in America. You've got it pounded into your skull from birth this is the greatest country on planet earth from day 1. Nobody wants to believe that somebody in America could be taken advantage of to the point where they can't eat, can't afford a place to lay their head and repeatedly injure themselves. I mean... you didn't, did you?
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It builds character.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
No they are not. We can follow their posting history and see if they have a history of posting inflammatory garbage. With yourself we just have to assume it instead.
Good. Add this to my history: FUCK YOU!
All these Slashdot commenters jumping in front of this story like it's a bullet, just giddy to defend the international megacorp. I'm sure Bezos is very grateful for the free service.
+1
Some stories deserve sympathy, but at 49, she can fuck off.
Sigh... American white trash. It is really a paradise here in Brazil. I really don't get why they claim my fellow countrymen would even think about living in a such a hellhole as immigrants.
Bush not only didn't see it and didn't avoid it, he took additional actions, such as military adventurism and tax cuts which exacerbated the problem.
For every actual issue reported, there are multiple instances of people "gaming the system", fraudulently claiming workplace injury or discrimination, or filing repeated false HR reports to attempt to build up a "history" of abuses, being terminated for their bulls**t, and then pointing to that "history" as the REASON for their termination.
That's great that the bar is set high for insurance compensation due to this often repeated verbatim accusation that is never supported by any evidence, never ever, yet applied to the majority of all insurance claims, because it tells me the accusation is absolute bullshit, a fallicious generization and untrue, and that you are a heartless paranoid, just like big insurance is. Count your blessings, because there but for the grace of God you will go.
And of course it had NOTHING to do with lenders setting time bombs on the loans, lending money they didn't even have, or talking people into McMansion loans rather than starter homes they might have had a chance of paying off.
Note that it wasn't just (or even mostly) poor people who got nailed when the bubble popped. It was also middle class (former) homeowners and commercial properties. Then there's the whole robo-signing thing and banks trying to foreclose on properties they didn't even hold a mortgage on.
The situation with commercial properties was the really crazy part. Because of the screwy criteria for foreclosure, renters were actually raising rent on properties when tenants left even though they were barely 50% occupied and so driving even more commercial tenants out.
And of course, the whole deal of questionable financial instruments being created and fraudulently rated as AAA when they were more akin to junk bonds didn't help.
That was all related to de-regulating the banks, not requiring small loans to less well qualified borrowers.
It does appear that Amazon has been a bit callous or careless here; the weeks without pay would not have happened if she had a good manager.
The weeks without pay and still having to commute to and from work every day probably had something to do with returning to work before she was healed up as well.
Not just Amazon, this is just good ol' fashioned capitalism. Once we finish getting rid of unions the free market can handle everything. #MAGA
Look, you can believe what you want to believe. There are certainly real cases, where real people have been hurt by actual negligence, or discriminated against with true malice. It happens, and those people deserve to be protected. There are lots of resources to help those people, and whatever the newspaper says, there are far more gov't departments that tend towards over-reacting with severe enforcement, moreso than turning a blind eye to true workplace violations.
But you have to recognize that when you credulously accept every story about injury and discrimination at face-value, you're not helping the real victims -- you're hurting all of the people who REALLY HAVE been wronged by dumping resources, attention and time on cases that distract from real problems.
There's just too many problems with this story. There are thousands of vacant jobs, requiring few or no skills, in the DFW market. A 60-mile commute in that area, for a specific job, makes too little sense because of how dense that area is. Rents are not that high -- $500/month median rent for a 1Br/1Ba, which is less than 33% of even a $10/hr job working 35-hours per week. She claims to have willingly gone back to doing an un-safe job, even assuming the employer was stupid enough to allow that to occur -- and, in terms of safety gear, that "all important" brush guard that the article hangs its hat on, isn't actually an OSHA-recognized piece of safety equipment!!
I see the horrible crud that happens to people every day, and I do count my blessings. But you do nobody any good when you get outraged and demand action based on "investigative journalism" like this crap. It has every hallmark of trying to make the "Amazon is evil" point, and too many warning flags that no sane person (or employer) would ever actually commit. If this piece is even 75% accurate, then it should be making the point of needing better mental-health counseling in TX, not one about workplace safety.
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Bush not only didn't see it and didn't avoid it, he took additional actions, such as military adventurism and tax cuts which exacerbated the problem.
Military adventurism? You mean the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions? You act like we got into those just for the thrill of blowing stuff up..
Tax Cuts? How on earth did that make the situation with the subprime mess worse? And Didn't the next administration not do the same things and more?
And you are totally discounting the facts behind how this whole house of cards got built and haven't admitted to the players or their motives in the setup phase. Had this house of cards not been built in the first place, there would have been no problem.
So What exactly is the Problem you are discussing? It doesn't seem to be what I'm discussing.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
his how this place is. clearly having her on that machine was a problem but rather then move her to one of the many other areas they let the problem get worse.
good for you but amazon is trash. its one of the worst working environments you can think of.
Not everyone is suited to a fancier job. The worker's share of profits has been decreasing since time was time. She could have had a partner who abandoned her, with whom she was previously engaged in building a life. Any number or combination of factors could have put her in this position, and there but for luck goes you.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
We have a winner here in the A/C's post. You are correct on all counts and exactly what I was driving at.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
That's wonderful... but just because Amazon is a dismal working environment, doesn't mean that, as a company, they're also criminally stupid. I could name dozens of companies that I'd never work for on my worst day. Which makes it even more interesting that this Guardian article tries to paint Haslet TX as some kind of isolated podunk town, where Amazon is the only employer in town and employees make 60-mile commutes for the only work they can get.
It's on the edge of the DFW metroplex. There are, literally, thousands of un-skilled jobs within 25 miles of the Amazon facility. Pick one and apply. Pretending like Amazon has a warehouse full of mis-treated slaves that can't do anything else is more than slightly disingenuous.
Amazon being a terrible company doesn't mean that most of the "tragedies" in this article hold water.
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Look, you can say what you want to say, but when you use fallacy to make an argument, it shows, and you defeat your own argument.
Clearly, it is not possible that most claims are fraudulent, as insurance underwriters would like to be true and have everyone believe, because it is in their greatest interest that most claims are fraudulent.
Human nature tells us most everone on this planet is just like ourselves. From a certain perspective, we are indistinguishable, near identical copies of one another. Assume you were injured at work. Assume you now have intolerable back pain when trying to use your back, or do any physical work. How much do you WANT to make a claim? Even those making legitimate claims hate the idea of going through the process of making the claim. Pain is bearable, but being scrutinized is intolerable, and the payouts are sometimes not ever worth this unnecessary examination by accusitory assholes. Thus, it is my belief, and I am confident in my belief, that this idea of massive, massive, fraudulent claims for every legitmate one is total shit, and you, sir, are a shit peddler. No one wants to make insurance claims, especially due to work injury, neither the injured, nor this fantasy group of fraudsters. No one wants to do it. The payout could not be worth the fraud, which has its own cost. Therefore, the fraud is minimal, if it exists at all.
The big issue is the money decides whether a claim is fraudulent, and not, you know, professional medical doctors. Are you a physician? By what medical expertise can you make any judgement whatsoever about any insurance claim you have ever seen? Did you ever stand to benefit by discovering fraudulent claims? Are you personally affected if a large claim is paid?
Scrutiny sucks, especially when it is unjustified, as I have just proven to you.
Brazil is a paradise? Now I've seen everything!
It absolutely was Bush's fault.
The banks loaned money because the regulations that required them to keep proper reserves were gutted.
They saw an opportunity to make money and socialize the risk ( and isnt that what happened? On our tax dollar/back ).
Ask yourself, who was in a position to know the risk, the unqualified person, or the bank?
Yeah, the bank. And they didnt fight it, they went for it whole hog, got caught out, then bailed out.
Face it regulations are required. People are stupid, brutish and very greedy.
And that does not stop when they have lots, in fact, if seems to get worse.
How about "Report Reveals Numerous Cases of Amazon Worker Mistreatment"?
Most of the comments here make me sick.
No one here has ever had a shit job to get by? Had she complained she would have got less hours. Less hours equals less pay. How they got her to work and not compensate her for it is illegal in most parts. Why is it not here?
All of you anti-union and why not complain to the supervisor retards have no fucking idea what the real world is like for the vast majority of jobs out there.
If only employees could get together and strengthen their bargaining power.
If I've been reading the reports correctly, fast food and similar places generally ensure that you work less than 20 hours a week at an irregular schedule. So you've got to juggle two irregular hour jobs, neither of which will provide health insurance, workers comp, or other "full time employee" benefits.
I think you need to re-figure the costs/rewards.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
In my view, the Department of Labor's unprecedented assertion of authority to proscribe SeaWorld's whale show is triply flawed: First, it departs from longstanding administrative precedent governing the extent of the Department's authority. Second, it irrationally and arbitrarily distinguishes (i) close contact between trainers and whales in SeaWorld shows from (ii) contact between players in the NFL or speeding in NASCAR races, for example, which the Department still proclaims as exempt from regulation under this statute. Third, the decision green-lights the Department to regulate sports and entertainment activities in a way that Congress could not conceivably have intended in 1970 when giving the agency general authority to ensure safer workplaces.
But you go on, quoting over-the-top, pejorative, emotional, factless bullshit such as "“Kavanaugh’s idea of making America great again apparently hearkens back to a time before the Workers Compensation laws and the Occupational Safety and Health Act were passed,”
ORLY?!?!
That's utter FEELZ!!!, devoid of fact. And does absolutely nothing to refute Kavanaugh's legal claims.
It's childish pounding the table and yelling like hell
The employer pays for workers compensation insurance. The employee and the employer pay for Social Security. Both worker's comp and SS disability pay long and short term to support an injured worker. In return, the worker does not sue the employee.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
I registered once. I was banned by other users. So now I only post anonymously, my posts may start at 0, but at least I can't be banned by other users. The slashdot censorship system is disgusting in its abdication of responsibility for content to users.
whiplash will deny that users can ban other users, but he is wrong.
NEXT UP: Gangbangers get bad rap.
Those who can, work. And reproduce. Everyone else, enjoy the ride at just above subsistance level income modified by healthcare requirements. Iâ(TM)m personally inthat second category and Iâ(TM)m completely okay with it.
The location is irrelevant. You know it is. Just because the foreman across the street doesn't beat his employees doesn't mean your current one can. If you don't like beatings, you can go work across the street amirite? This could be in the middle of downtown NYC with 0% unemployment and 1,000,000 open available jobs with zero training requirements and it wouldn't make it right.
Also your assement of why she's living out of her car is pure conjecture on your part. It is an opinion. It is worth less than zero. The only opinion that matters is the one she'll get in court, if someone is charged with something. TFA doesn't explicitly state if any lawsuits are open regarding her situation.
Furthermore you stated several posts up that you're an insurance professional for the EPLI. There is a conflict of interest here regarding your analysis and opinions. Why don't we ask the wolf what he wants for dinner, shall we?
Keep blaming the victim.
....cheap... for the modern communist to still be able to afford soy lates and dream of other people paying for their stuff.
Communism, the great way for EVERYONE to be poor. *
* = except for the party elite.
K. Marx wrote - "I am not a Marxist". You are right, the implementation of "communism" in Eastern Europe with the hostile surrounding environment was a failure. But it does not negate current social problems and contradictions.
Building a library with free access for poor people, or cycling paths in a city, so that people can use bicycle for free, or community stadiums, etc. are also elements of what could be called a practical communism for the lack of a better word.
Her job will be gone in a year or so. As will most jobs in retail in N. America and Europe and wherever Amazon operates.
Automation will make them all unemployable as Bezos & Co strive for world domination.
Think long and had before you buy anything from Amazon or use an Amazon supplied service. Yes, it might be a dollar or so cheaper but how are the workers treated? Would you work for them? No matter. Once the robots take over humans apart from the Amazon BOD will be superflous to their operation.
Who can compete with that?
You have been warned.
It's not an example of the free market at all, it's an example of the social welfare state at work.
Companies like Amazon are forced by law to for all sort of accident and disability benefits and government programs that are supposed to take care of workers when they are injured on the job. Why should Amazon on top of all that still provide private benefits?
If you get injured on the job in Washington State or California, go to the state government for help, they collect enough money ostensibly for helping you if something should happen. If you don't like what you get from your state government, complain to them.
"Communism failed because capitalism didn't subsidize it enough." You people would be funny if you weren't so f*cking eil.
Those things also tend to be corrupt boondoggles and wastes of taxpayer money. So, yes, excellent examples of "practical communism".
"her supervisor would seem to me to be criminally negligent in not having a machine repaired that injured her before and then returning her to that machine."
HA! By that logic, mine owners that didn't care about the safety of their workers (and had an accident that resulted in 10+ deaths) would be serving life sentences!
Eat shit Bob!
Says the braindead retard that posts on Slashdot. We're not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with us.
Building a library with free access for poor people, or cycling paths in a city, so that people can use bicycle for free, or community stadiums, etc. are also elements of what could be called a practical communism for the lack of a better word.
That's not communism. Communism is, when tens of millions of people are killed, because they are people. Like, human beings.
Taxes are not socialism. Taxes are taxes.
A huge amount of Americans who call themselves Democrats, confuse socialism for social democracy.
What you lot appear to want, is social democracy, but you falsely use the word socialism, thus advocating for the very poor system going on in Venezuela. The same system, that also failed the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states, and for good reasons: occupations and deportations, mass murder, and human suffering. Don't forget North Korea, too.
No, democratic socialism is not social democracy.
Sweden and other Nordic countries are actually very capitalist societies. Yet they know the value of caring for their own (for the most part).
The United States, OTOH, is a capitalist society based on cruelty. Case in point being separations of children from parents by ICE, CBP, or Border Patrol (doesn't even matter, whether the parents are eligible for the DACA process, or are legally seeking asylum from violence and persecution, or escape poverty and want a better life).
The headline is clickbait. The article is about the state of Texas which is the only state in the union without mandatory Workman's Comp Insurance laws. This article does not pass muster if it was in any other state other than Texas. But let's pick on Amazon.
That's a wonderful story full of moral hazard that the news loves to tell about the 2008 crash. The problem is that the data doesn't back it up at all. The supposed over-lending to low-income homeowners simply didn't happen. It was just used as an excuse for horrible policy. Which happened to have the side-effect of transferring huge amounts of wealth away from low-income home owners.
Well, we did go into Iraq for (Bush's) thrill of blowing stuff up.
Iraq had not even a thread of a connection to 9/11. This was known prior to the invasion and was communicated to Bush by Richard Clarke immediately after the 9/11 attacks. In response, Bush told him to find a link.
It was known prior to the invasion, and prior to 9/11 that Iraq had no WMD program. To quote Colin Powell, speaking of Iraq's WMD program and sanctions on February 24, 2001 in Cairo:
"Frankly, they have worked. He [Hussein] has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."
And then the Downing Street Memo:
"Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
And then Bush's little slip revealing his hate for Saddam - again pre-invasion. I watched him say it on live TV, so yeah, it happened:
"There's no doubt his hatred is mainly directed at us. There's no doubt he can't stand us. After all, this is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time."
Inconvenient facts are inconvenient. There was no intelligence failure.
60 miles of driving costs $25-30, considering gas, wear and tear, depreciation, and insurance. Anything less than a $3/hr pay cut is actually a raise if you can walk or bike to work instead.
You have never been poor, have you? If a poor person speaks up, they will lose their job and likely will not be able to find another.
If you don't believe me, just look at the comments on this thread. Because she is poor, you all have jumped to the conclusion that it is her fault.
The poor grow up being treated like trash which means they learn from an early age to be hopeless. They learn early on that their is no point in trying to stand up for themselves because the only things that does is make them a target for the ruling class.
There is a better word. Socialism.
Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
So no bicycle paths, no stadiums, no libraries, just rich people inside expensive cars.
I am almost sure you did not read "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo. I mean the orginal text in French.
To the degree that infrastructure and education should be financed by government (and some of it should), it is not "communism" to provide these things, it is local politics and local taxes. That is, municipalities should spend scarce resources on clearly necessary infrastructure and services, not the kinds of gimmicks for the wealthy you demand.
And useless gimmicks for wealthy people is what you advocate. The rest of us are better off without having our money wasted on such boondoggles, driving our regular cars (and regular bicycles) on regular roads, paying for our entertainment out of our own pockets, and getting books on the Internet for free on our E-readers.
Ah, I see your problem: you confuse 19th century French literature with a meaningful economic and political analysis of 21st century America.
And I'm sorry that French must have been such a struggle for you that you actually think it's worth mentioning what languages you read books in. For multilingual folks like myself, what language one reads a book in simply doesn't even register.
This is why Corporations oppose UBI; They need https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slaves
https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/04/why-the-world-should-adopt-a-basic-income
Casteism
Marx argued that capitalism is in essence a system of rent-seeking: rather than creating wealth from nothing, as they like to imagine, capitalists are in the business of expropriating the wealth of others.
https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/05/03/rulers-of-the-world-read-karl-marx
Casteism