I'm convinced that Sears is a criminal organization...

They violated state laws by paying me less than minimum wage for 18 weeks and refused to make it right. Now the state is prosecuting it, they are still not paying, and running the risk of being charged with theft of wages.

I quit because I was working 60+ hours per week and they made me pay all of my own travel expenses in the sales job- even though my sales numbers were average my income was a negative number for the last 6 weeks on the job. That means I was paying them to work there. Sears lost the unemployment hearing and the judge ruled that what they are doing is illegal and no employee should be subject to it and that I was eligible for unemployment benefits since the company refused to follow labor standards laws.

The company bankrupted me and many others there with their lies about what my income would be and has so far held up my unemployment benefits for 8 weeks where I've gotten no check, and the 6 weeks before that that I worked with then I received no income at all. That means I've had nothing to live off of for 14 weeks and NOW instead of just letting the unemployment claim go through like the judge ruled, they have hired an "Unemployment Hearing Consultant" to re-take the claim through appeals and further delay it.

I have never in my life seen or heard of a company that works SO HARD at cheating their employees out of basic human rights. These Sears folks have no shame, no ethics, no sense of corporate citizenship...

So they lost the unemployment decision, and instead of actually considering the merits of their case, abiding by the law and bringing the employees wage up to the minimum which is required by law, the company looks for just one more way to stick it to the employee one more time and delay by additional weeks the unemployment compensation that the employee wouldn't even need if Sears hadn't been making them work for free...

So is this here to be useful or is this here to rant, because this is so vague and lacking in actual numbers that its extremely hard to form an opinion on it.

It was intended to be useful, but I haven't updated it for a while.

Anyone working for Sears on a commission only basis needs to contact their state's labor department and check out what the law is. The federal labor standards law exempts commission only employees from minimum wage but there are 18 states that do not.

I filed a labor standards complaint in Wisconsin, and although it took about 2 months to get my money, Sears was ordered to send me and dozens of other employees checks to make up the difference. I got $2700 and the average person got around $4500 that Sears had to pay out for not follow labor standards laws.

I started a new complaint now about illegal payroll deductions. According to the law the employee has to sign off on each and every payroll deduction and blanket agreements are void. Based on that they owe me another $7000 or so for commission deductions that were made over the year according to various Sears policies.

End result is don't trust that because they're a 50billion$ company that they will follow labor standards laws, or even know what they are. Check with your own state's labor office about minimum wage and payroll deductions. I am guessing that there are thousands and thousands of people who are owed money and haven't bothered to get it because they assume that Sears knows and follows the law.

They are still pretty shady though- I found out that the office I used to work in has posted a timekeeping policy now that tells employees to keep track of their hours and how. They say the employee is supposed to start their timekeeping record 90 minutes after they leave the house every day and give an example of some 11 hour work-day and how to record it so it comes out to only 7 hours. Managers are responsible for making sure employees sign off on the reduced number of hours.

Oh yeah, and I won the unemployment claim as well... Even though I quit the job, the judge ruled that quitting was a rational response to unreasonable acts on the part of the employer, because the law says that the employee is entitled to be paid a living wage for his services. He said in his ruling that I could have continued working and collected unemployment at the same time, however that was not an option due to the significant out of pocket expenses the company required me to incur in order to obtain that insufficient wage... and that the problem was exacerbated by the low quality of the leads Sears provided (i.e. a customer in a brick home that supposedly wanted siding and other leads for products that the company does not even sell), thus causing the employee to expend money needlessly.

So, latest update- I just got a letter from the department of unemployment insurance that says my benefits are held due to a question about my eligibility, which is odd since it's already gone through the court and the judge ruled that I get unemployment. Well now I have been collecting unemployment for several months and get a letter that there is another hearing coming up to determine my eligibility. Get this-

I call the unemployment office to ask what this is about, and the claims specialist tells me that Sears has now filed paperwork claiming that I never even worked for them and that I was a subcontractor. Unbelievable... I was never a subcontractor, I worked directly for Sears, they withheld payroll taxes and issued my W2 at the end of the year.

Anyhow, this is all coming from Sears corporate in Farmington Hills, IL - So before you take a job at Sears bear in mind that this is the kind of blatant dishonesty you are going to have to deal with if you take the job. The folks at Sears corporate will lie about absolutely anything in their attempts to cheat you out of whatever monies you are entitled to.

My dad worked for Sears for over 30 years.. When he started there in the 70's, he loved the job, loved his boss and loved the company. In the last decade or more, he's been mistreated, talked down to, and basically ignored by management. They trample all over him, dictate his every move, and treat him like crap. I feel so horrible for him, but he's so close to retirement he just has to take it from them. I am so worried that Sears will go under before he has a chance to get out of there. I hate to see things like this happen, and I guess if you're older in the workforce, it's even worse...

I am glad I found this forum. I knew I was not the only one but was hoping there was a blog somewhere regarding SHIP's abusive labor practice. I echo what you and the others have said here in this forum.
I was duped into believing that I could make over a six figure income after one year; duped into believing that the investment I make in time, gas money and mileage would bring a return that made it worthwhile; duped into believing that I would have such freedoms comparable only to what I was used to as a businesswoman; duped into believing that Sears was doing me a favor by providing me with leads rather than making me get them myself; duped into believing that they are a great company that pays people what they earned. Instead, I have made 4 sales after running 60 appointments that were 75% absolutely useless per the description given by pover-tee (I could do better finding my own leads but we are forced to service these crappy preset appointments); have had to battle for my rightfully earned commissions of a little over $3K which to date is still not paid in full (imagine a 50 billion dollar company not willing to pay this miniscule amount). I have never worked so hard in my life for so little money, and I have never seen such blatant abuse by top management who choose to deal with issues by ignoring the "complainers". I have sent an email to the labor department. We'll see what happens. I am thinking of bringing a lawsuit against them. Maybe we can find enough people to file a class action.

Now part timers are being reduced to 1 only 3 hour shift a week - so that they cannot file for unemployment!

Full timers are reduced to less than 30 - so that they can no longer get company benefits.

This is because the company wants us to quit so that we cannot collect unemployment when the stores close down.

In addition - you must earn a certain amount in this job in a base period to even qualify for unemployment - so they have it all figured out so that employees can NEVER get unemployment!

Marvin in Alexandria, Indiana said: Now part timers are being reduced to 1 only 3 hour shift a week - so that they cannot file for unemployment!

Full timers are reduced to less than 30 - so that they can no longer get company benefits.

This is because the company wants us to quit so that we cannot collect unemployment when the stores close down.

In addition - you must earn a certain amount in this job in a base period to even qualify for unemployment - so they have it all figured out so that employees can NEVER get unemployment!

The company is totally devoid of all ethics since Eddie Lampert took the wheel as Chairman. It really does create a lot of ill will between employees and the corporate HQ. I was really angry about the way they were treating people (myself included) until I finally came to the realization that these are simply the acts of a 35b company in it's death throes. All you can do is keep filing stuff against them that will benefit you.

If your hours have just been cut you can probably file for and get unemployment even though you are still working there. They did the exact same thing when I worked there, and I got unemployment while I was still working there- and to really stick it to them I told everyone else in my department about it, so most of them filed for it too.. If your hours just got cut I would not waste any time- Go file for unemployment right away. The worst that can happen is that the state unemployment office will tell you that you don't qualify, although from what your saying I think that you will qualify for at least partial unemployment benefits.

I talked to a lawyer before I filed as well, and he told me that if Sears decided to fire me for filing the unemployment claim then we could sue them and win.

I do not recommend buying any air conditioning equipment from Sears Home Improvement product, nor work for them. No one, but the quality dept answers the phone...no one wants to take the responsibility to warranty the products. There are customers who have had to go without a evaporator coil for 3 months which was still in warranty, but took so long to get the paperwork approved...no ac for 3 months in the middle of summer..., another lady, very old, had strokes and is still waiting to get a replacement on her warranty equipment...damaged her floors. In the mean time, contractors like us, have to wait for approval before we can come out to their homes...which usually takes weeks...furthermore, the customers always contact us because no one at the office returns their phone calls or calls them concerning their equipment.

After paying our helpers, permits, extra materials to complete the job and pass inspection...we make about $400 to $500 per job...but lately we have not gotten reimbursed for city permits, extra breaker or service work order etc. Sears owes us thousands of dollars. We are in business to make profit, not to get into debt.
So, now are profit is about $200- $300 per job...Our poor guys have to work in 140 degrees attics all day long...Sears needs to stop passing the buck and take responsibility.