Stealing Seconds

Earlier this week I posted the pilot episode of a new podcast series called Mark Lipton Live, where I summarized the findings of my investigation of wage theft at Sherwin-Williams. 

Recorded earlier this month, the episode lays out my case against Sherwin, which forces employees to work without pay as a matter of practice according to the hundreds of Sherwin-Williams employees I interviewed.  In the episode I speak to how each class of employee is impacted by these schemes, which I estimated costs store managers as much as 25% of their pay. 

Money CEO Heidi Petz apparently gets to keep.    

To avoid sharing any information which might identify a source, I kept details to a minimum, focusing instead on the aggregated findings of my investigation.  And that was the week of Monty’s obedience training, so we had other things to talk about.  But had it come up during Q & A, I would have read from any of the complaints in lawsuits against Sherwin, which tend to mirror the outcome of my findings. 

Such as Sanchez vs Sherwin, which was filed in January of this year just days before we recorded.  A former employee of Sherwin’s, Sanchez asserts that I’ve been right all along, though his lawyer adds more detail than that.  Already a class action, the suit alleges that what happened to Sanchez was also happening to everyone else.

An assertion I find likely to be true.   

Under penalty of perjury, Sanchez accused Sherwin of rounding down every employee’s hours when they clocked out of work, “as a matter of established company policy and procedure.”  Billionaires stealing minutes and seconds from the timecards of hourly employees.

Sanchez further alleges that Sherwin refused lunch breaks, bathroom breaks, or any other personal breaks which California law requires.  And that he never got paid for those breaks he was forced to give up.  An accusation corroborated by my investigation which found that statistically, 100% of the store managers I interviewed were victims of this same theft.

Like other wage theft cases which Sherwin has had to settle, they will have no defense against Mr. Sanchez’s claims.   

And neither does Petz, whose company stands accused of “imposing controls” which “prohibit” employees from leaving the store during the day.  Even during unpaid rest periods, another accusation my investigation corroborates.  Along with refusing to reimburse for expenses incurred “as a direct consequence of discharging their duties on behalf of defendant.”  All of which is likely to be true, though the settlement and process costs likely won’t be enough to compel Heidi into constraining her greed.

Which is where I come in. 

Next week I’ll have a fresh episode of LIVE, updating Pittsburgh news with details from a source in the stores division.  The episode includes my forecast for any stores which are not four-wall profitable, as is the case at more than 20% of all Pittsburgh stores nationwide according to my source.  On the live, a Pittsburgh employee shared that includes as many as half of all stores in Texas.  Which does not make it a fact, just something someone told me which does seem to be true. 

The following week I’ll release the final pilot episode featuring Benjamin Moore, the only episode which disappointed my vision for this content by ending without a Q & A.  Likely because I left them speechless after sharing a detailed accounting of my relationship with that company for the first time in years.  And if you’ve never heard it, it’s not what you might think.

The first two LIVES drew more than 50 viewers each, with the Ben Moore episode pulling half that amount, which I’ll blame on that company’s size compared to Sherwin and Pittsburgh rather than a waning interest in my content.  Because size does matter, but my feelings matter more.