@snaffle1987 your comment asking when the last time anyone saw a time clock in the shed row is telling. I can only think of one barn ever, that had a time clock.
You clearly have no idea how people are paid in the horse industry.
and you clearly don’t understand that even though it is the “norm” doesn’t make it legal and/or right. This is how employees easily have missed wages that they earned. If you have employees on the payroll it is up to you , the business owner, to track their hours properly. Otherwise you are setting yourself up for a legal issue. Just because it is done currently, and has always been done that way, does not make it right and does not mean things do not need to change.
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perhaps I should’ve said “came across as…” not “looked like”
I never commented on right or wrong I merely stated that it’s weird you think time clocks are normal and make me question why you state outlandish opinions as facts with a broad brush. That further makes me question your involvement with the industry as a whole.
The guy is a dirtbag for not paying his employees what they were owed. This would have happened even with time clocks. Clearly hours were being tracked.
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Back in the 1990s Lukas would make his employees get to the barn at 5:30 AM and not allow them to clock in until 5:45 AM. Not sure if he got into trouble for that.
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Citing what DWL is or was doing as any kind of beacon is not particularly relevant to what Chad Brown was doing last year.
Come to think if it, do you own horses? Any kind of horses, Do you board them out? Have you asked the person you pay your board to how their employees are classified and paid and if they, as employer, keep good records on that compensation? Are you willing to pay more in board to ensure staff is fairly paid?
Possibility CB doesn’t do the payroll or scheduling, as employer, he’s the one at fault but most bigger trainers in any discipline have a person or service they hire to oversee payroll and other record keeping details. So they, the trainer, can supervise training the horses. Big training operation is big business with professionals in non horse related aspects handling those details.
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As always you say it better. Thank you.
Those are my questions. I think snaffle’s time would be better spent attacking her own discipline with the voracity that she attacks racing.
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Farms are considered agriculture under labor regs, racetracks aren’t. I had to wade through a lot of rules like that both federal and state (thank the good Lord for the Farm Bureau in NY and their information services) when I handled the business office at a farm in NY from 2010-2013.
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Looks like Linda Rice apparently! Some people (not you) are so quick to judge.
Is there anyone who could take a stroll on the backside and think that all of the workers are in the US legally and employment laws are being followed? Thats just plain silly. and not just racetracks…construction sites for sure.
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From the PR article, the industry in general is being reviewed. I wouldn’t be surprised if even more surfaces… once racing is marginally cleaned up, the Department of Labor will spin the bottle and pick a new industry. :lol:
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It’s like Whack-A-Mole.
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AND landscaping, restaurants, your local car wash, show horse barns across the country, cleaning services- you name it, there are folks from Mexico working HARD for what is usually crap money…
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and tis not a matter of paying more for services like horse board, car washes, restaurants, etc. Its businesses capitalizing on cheap labor to maximize their profits. They use the excuse of raising the cost of the goods to pay more for labor but the honest truth is they could afford to pay more, it would just mean less to their bottom line. Car washes, dish washers, horse grooms, and general agriculture jobs are unskilled labor. Unskilled labor is unskilled labor. Its hard labor, its not pretty work out in the fields in the dead of summer. Unskilled labor doesn’t pay the bills for most Americans and those jobs were designed to be stepping stone, not a career option. Local high school kids washing dishes or picking veggies and crops in the fields during the summer were once the norm 40-50+ years ago.
Americans have grown to not want to do this labor, parents have stopped forcing kids from cushy homes to work when they become of age because Jr doesn’t want to get his hands dirty or sweat on his brow. Video games 24 hours a day in the summer and evenings are more enticing.
The stress of education in America has become one of college educated instead of chasing skilled labor/blue collar work like electricians, builders, construction, welders, mechanics,etc. The unskilled labor has gone to the migrant workers and has afforded Americans cheap food on the shelf and low overhead for business owners. For farmers it has allowed them to stay in business while the gov’t regulated crop prices have remained the same or worse than they were 30+ years ago. If you want migrant workers to be paid more, how do you suppose the farmer afford to do so when he is paid the same price for crops in 2019 as he was in 1980 or earlier? How do you suppose these cushy, posh show barns continue to feed their wealthy lifestyle if they have to pay their immigrant grooms more than 10 bucks an hour or 8.00 + housing?
No one wants to hire Americans to do the work because they are #1; greedy and want 15 an hour to do the work. #2, they are lazy. Americans don’t want to get their hands dirty and work long, hard hours outside of air conditioning. They can hire a Mexican for 8.00 an hour and provide him/her a trailer to live in. The person lives on minimal needs and sends American money back home. And they will work any and all hours to soak up as much American money as they can.
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Speaking of uninformed stereotypes…just because they are Latino, many, if not most, are not Mexicans.
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Thank you.
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A problem not just on this side of the pond. While workers should not be taken advantage of, on the flip side horses are animals-- not like you can pack them away and be done at a set time all the time. But Trainers do seem to have adjusted.
Assmussen now in trouble for FLSA violations.
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The point that I want to make is that Americans simply do not want these jobs. So persons from outside of our country, and many Latino, are stepping in to take these positions. They keep these industries going. Without them? No industry stays going in each of these different businesses. Could they adjust to pay more money? Possibly but you’re talking about an entire paradigm shift is not going to happen anytime soon
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Probably, IMO, should be more correctly worded Assmussen is the current poster child… he isn’t the only one and I suspect he isn’t the last to get publicly outed…
