Ultimatum | Shell workers told 'go see Trump or don't get paid'

Shell workers told 'go see Trump or don't get paid'

Employees or workers get paid by their employer for doing a specific job. Their job expectations and role responsibilities are outlined in their contract of employment and they will be paid accordingly for the work that they do.

Yet, Shell union workers were allegedly given an ultimatum: either turn up to President Donald Trump’s speech or miss out on a day’s pay – Indy100 reported. Whilst their attendance to the speech wasn’t compulsory, it was mandatory in order for the workers to receive the day’s pay, otherwise they were required to take the day off unpaid.

Union leaders received a memo laying down some strict ground rules about employee conduct whilst attending the speech. The memo, which was obtained by the Pittsburgh Gazette, read: “No yelling, shouting, protesting or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event. An underlying theme of the event is to promote good will from the unions. Your building trade leaders and jobs stewards have agreed to this.”

Workers were required to show up at 7am and had to be prepared to stand throughout lunch, without actually eating lunch, in order to qualify for their pay – Pittsburgh Gazette reported.

Workers who chose not to attend the speech wouldn’t qualify for overtime pay on Friday. Shell Spokesman, Ray Fisher, told the publication that onsite workers have a 56-hour work schedule, with 16 hours of overtime automatically built in. So those who attended Trump’s speech and showed up for work on Friday would be eligable for time and a half overtime pay.

This incident sparked huge debates on Twitter.



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Comments (1)

  • Anna
    Anna
    Mon, 19 Aug 2019 1:05pm BST
    I'm no Trump fan but surely the blame for this should be aimed more at the unions? Surely unions would not be a fan of Trump so unless he is now a champion of unionisation I am not sure why the unions would be so keen to force people to attend? Surely unions would be pro workers' rights and good working conditions and not pro big business Republicans?? All seems a bit odd and there are too many unanswered questions - this article feels poorly researched and feels like click bait to mention Trump and get everyone upset when to me the facts are not clear. HR Grapevine should be above such things.

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