Thursday - The Daycare Dictator
Aug. 31st, 2006 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninanevermoreToday on my drive into work, I was thinking about Katy, who used to be one of my son's daycare teachers. She did something gutsy, and I'm so glad that she did.
Let me start off by confessing that I left my son in the daycare run by a local Lutheran church for about a year longer than I should have. When I chose the center, I liked the staff, the children all seemed happy and well cared for, and I had a good feeling about the place in general. What I didn't know was that a new director had recently come on board and all of this was about to change.
Within a short time, the staff started to turn over at an alarming rate. Every few months, my son had to get used to a new caretaker. Because I work so far away, I was usually the last parent to pick my child up. He would be the only one in the room, so I found plenty of oportunities to speak with the teachers alone. I started asking them if anything was wrong and why they looked so stressed. More than a few poured their hearts out to me. The director, Pat, was not an easy woman to work for. For $6 an hour, these women were working in conditions that I wouldn't put up with for a hundred times what they made.
"Report this to someone," I would tell them.
"Sure," they would say, "Who?" I didn't know.
I finally remembered that one of the guys I work for is married to an attorney who specialized in employment law. She works for the county and isn't in private practice, but I though she might have a good idea of where to start. I sent my coworker an email and asked him to ask his wife for some advice that I could pass along.
His wife sent me the information I wanted:
The next day was my son's last. I transferred him to the Baptist daycare down the street, where the workers didn't look like they were all about to drop dead from exhaustion or burst into tears at any given moment. I kept wondering if Katy had passed along what I had given her.
Yesterday, when I picked up my son, I found out that she kept her word. One of the teachers at the Baptist church, Janine, had formerly worked at the Lutheran church. She brought up the problems there. This isn't unusual; every former teacher from the Lutheran school that I run into always wants to talk about the problems at the center. Long after they leave, they still have a need to vent.
Katy's name came up. I mentioned the email and wondered out loud what she did with it. Janine's face broke into a huge smile.
"Oh, she gave it to everyone," she said, and told me the story.
Within two weeks of my son's leaving, Katy brought copies of the emails to a staff meeting and handed them out to all of the daycare workers in attendance. She had highlighted the list of labor law violations, as well as the part about "not being able to imagine any employment attorneys turning the case down." Last of all, she handed one to Pat, the director who had cheated them out of so much pay and made them work in sweatshop conditions, including 12-hour days they worked with no breaks and no compensation for the hours that were overtime.
"I quit," she said. With that, she turned around and walked out.
Good for her. If she doesn't sue the school for back pay, I hope one of them does.
Let me start off by confessing that I left my son in the daycare run by a local Lutheran church for about a year longer than I should have. When I chose the center, I liked the staff, the children all seemed happy and well cared for, and I had a good feeling about the place in general. What I didn't know was that a new director had recently come on board and all of this was about to change.
Within a short time, the staff started to turn over at an alarming rate. Every few months, my son had to get used to a new caretaker. Because I work so far away, I was usually the last parent to pick my child up. He would be the only one in the room, so I found plenty of oportunities to speak with the teachers alone. I started asking them if anything was wrong and why they looked so stressed. More than a few poured their hearts out to me. The director, Pat, was not an easy woman to work for. For $6 an hour, these women were working in conditions that I wouldn't put up with for a hundred times what they made.
"Report this to someone," I would tell them.
"Sure," they would say, "Who?" I didn't know.
I finally remembered that one of the guys I work for is married to an attorney who specialized in employment law. She works for the county and isn't in private practice, but I though she might have a good idea of where to start. I sent my coworker an email and asked him to ask his wife for some advice that I could pass along.
I'm wondering if you could ask [your wife] a question for me.
One of the girls at my son's daycare has complained that the woman who runs the center is withholding overtime pay that she has coming, in addition to demanding on certain occasion that she stay and work after her shift was over and not get paid for it. Other workers at this daycare...have complained about not getting breaks, of having to work through their lunches but still having management clock them out and not pay them for that hour (even though they were not free to leave), etc.
Would [your wife] know what agency or entity these workers can file a complaint with? Next time, I'd like to be able to hand them a phone number, or at least the name of someone or some place that can help.
His wife sent me the information I wanted:
Sounds like a Fair Labor Standards (act FLSA) issue. Violations can be reported to the Department of Labor. Its website is: http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/flsa/. The DOL has an office in Houston:I printed out both emails, blacked out our identifying information, and took a couple of copies with me to give to his teachers. I learned that Marla, who had over 80 hours of overtime owned to her, had quit. Katy, who was fed up but still hanging in there, took the information and said she would see that other people got it.
Houston District Office
US Dept. of Labor
ESA Wage & Hour Division
Martin Barrow, District Director
8701 S. Gessner Drive, Suite 1164
Houston, TX 77074-2944
Phone: 1-866-4-USWAGE (1-866-487-9243)
FLSA lawsuits are real popular now because the only question to decide is if the worker was paid for all the hours he or she worked. I would advise the workers to keep track of all the hours they work and when the manager clocks them out for them without permission. If what they say is true, and they have notes and documents to prove it, I can't imagine any employment attorneys turning the case down.
The next day was my son's last. I transferred him to the Baptist daycare down the street, where the workers didn't look like they were all about to drop dead from exhaustion or burst into tears at any given moment. I kept wondering if Katy had passed along what I had given her.
Yesterday, when I picked up my son, I found out that she kept her word. One of the teachers at the Baptist church, Janine, had formerly worked at the Lutheran church. She brought up the problems there. This isn't unusual; every former teacher from the Lutheran school that I run into always wants to talk about the problems at the center. Long after they leave, they still have a need to vent.
Katy's name came up. I mentioned the email and wondered out loud what she did with it. Janine's face broke into a huge smile.
"Oh, she gave it to everyone," she said, and told me the story.
Within two weeks of my son's leaving, Katy brought copies of the emails to a staff meeting and handed them out to all of the daycare workers in attendance. She had highlighted the list of labor law violations, as well as the part about "not being able to imagine any employment attorneys turning the case down." Last of all, she handed one to Pat, the director who had cheated them out of so much pay and made them work in sweatshop conditions, including 12-hour days they worked with no breaks and no compensation for the hours that were overtime.
"I quit," she said. With that, she turned around and walked out.
Good for her. If she doesn't sue the school for back pay, I hope one of them does.
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 08:35 pm (UTC)These are poor, unskilled workers. Most of them were very young (in their late teens and early 20s), with only a high school education or a GED, or less. They are an easy group to exploit because they don't have any idea what resources are available to them.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-08-31 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 11:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-02 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-01 02:25 pm (UTC)