Topic: Slave labor in Iraq

[aafes_iraq]

Here's the latest BS from the "top"....all employees in Iraq no longer get a day off, and if you must have one you have to take Sunday.  If you dont like it, call King Dennis and ask him for a day off...implication being "I'll get rid of you if you complain".   Add to that, HR says we have to work 12 hour days.  Sooo, 7 x 12 is 84 hours a week...I get paid for 60.  Now, I understand mission requirements, unexpected problems, troop surge, etc would require us to work extra as needed....but this has been mandated, period.

On top of that, I've been told that if I do get lucky enough to get Sunday off, I lose 10 hours from my 60 and get paid for only 50, although I would have still worked 72 over 6 days.  None of this is in writing of course...

Managements answer?  If you dont like it, leave.

[posgirl]

Shame,, Shame,, Shame on you for complainingg about working for free and not getting paid for the hours you actually  are required to work. Do you know if they actually paid you for the hours you worked, that would hurt the bonus of your superiors? How disloyal is that,, you should be happy your superior is getting a higher bonus for you working off the clock.

[Cowboy]

If you're not getting paid for hours worked, that's your own fault.  No really.  It is.  There are many ways outside of AAFES to solve issues like that.  DoD IG is an example.  Since AAFES works under Congressional mandate, any federal IG office can point you to the right place to take such issues.  They're violating several federal laws by not compensating you for time worked.  So yeah, if you don't get it fixed, your bad.  They can't fire you for raising the issue either, because that would violate other federal laws.  enjoy.

[TheFreud]

They can't fire you for raising the issue either, because that would violate other federal laws.  enjoy.

In a perfect world, that would be true Cowboy. I just went thru a similar... well, not so much- but I followed the law and reported something I was mandated to report, and they fired me for it. When they realized it was aginast the law to do so, the changed the paperwork to say it was for a different reason.
SO- what I would recommend- when you report it, make sure you go as high above your own head as you can. DO NOT say anything to the AAFES chain of command... Likely you are in an at-will work state, and they can trump up any old reason they want, even though it is just retaliation for whistle blowing.

[Cowboy]

You do bring up a good point about "right-to-work" States, which brought another question to mind.  Since AAFES receives Federal monies, do they fall under State labor laws, or Federal?  They operate on Federal property, they run under Congressional approval, but do employees fall under State labor laws?  Or does AAFES only wish their employees to believe they do?  I'm just a grunt so I don't know those answers, but I figure one of you AAFES smart folks either know, or know where to look.  If they fall under Federal labor laws (i.e., NAF, GS, WG, whatnot payband) then it opens a whole new arena to how employees are supposed to be fired.  Random reason "X" doesn't count.

[Disgruntled]

AAFES employees are considered "sort of" Federal employees. They ARE protected from bosses walking in one day and firing them for wearing pink nail polish or whatever and there are several CBAs that protect the majority of the workers. The LNs overseas are protected by the labor laws of their countries.

HOWEVER, that does not stop management from dropping a dime on you to LP and having them on your @$$ for that random trumped-up charge.

But, to clarify a misconception--"right to work" is not the same as "at will", Cowboy. "Right to work" means there can be no "closed" (union-only) shops and people cannot be forced to join a union in order to work somewhere. "At will" is like what I jokingly hypothesized about above--one can be fired for any or even no reason other than the boss wanted to do so.

The biggest joke of all is that, on the front page of the employee home page, there is a link to the "No FEAR" Act letter about whistle-blowing promising that, if you do the right thing and don't break the law yourself, you are safe. 

[knowitall]

Stop complaining....you get danger pay 35%, forgien post 35% plus 40 hours overtime....What more do you want. Take Sunday off and stop whining or jsut go back to the states

[Disgruntled]

Nope, nope and nope.

No one gets more than 20 hours mandatory OT. That is stated clearly in the recruiting material.

[knowitall]

But they do....been there done that...have you?

[Disgruntled]

Someone cheated on the payroll, did they?

3s and above are only granted that 20 hour mandatory OT. If you got more, someone did you a BIG favor.