Today my zipper broke on my jeans causing my fly to pop open for all the world to see. At which point I worked the next two cand a half hours until my lunch break during which I notified my line leader and supervisor that I wished to go home and change pants during lunch then return to work upon returning to work ten minutes late from lunch I was told I could be Penalized a point that could possibly lose my job for being late. I could also lose my job for sexualk harassment if my wsardrobe malfunctioned and someone unfortunately saw my private area. Advice and somee legal precedents would be appreciated

Here's the thing.

You're required to come to work in appropriate attire. If the zipper on your jeans breaks, that's on you, not your boss or your place of employment.

They don't have to allow you to change clothes, because you should have worn appropriate clothing to begin with.

If you choose to go home during your lunch to change the defective clothing, that's also on you. If you're late, that's on you.

Your place of employment shouldn't be short changed or penalized because you decided to wear a faulty pair of jeans.

Sorry, but this one's on you.

It is over with so what or why are you asking? Are you planning to take this issue further?

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Originally Posted by ballengerb1

It is over with so what or why are you asking? Are you planning to take this issue further?

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Good question.

Also, the poster didn't say if the employer fired her, or just told her to not do it again. If it was a slap on the wrist, I don't understand why she's asking this.

Either way, she chose to wear the pants, the pants broke, so it's on her. The only way I can see this being an employers issue is if the poster was provided with a uniform that broke. Then the employer would be responsible.

I agree with you point. The fact that the question is being asked after the fact makes me wonder what is a foot.

Nothing beyond trying to refute the point I would be given I'm just asking for a basic human right to preserve my dignity not in it for a lawsuit and how am I supposed to know that my jeans were defective it wasn't like there was no zipper there to begin with I would understand if I left the house knowingly wearing clothing that would break shortly after arriving but I left home with vwhat was a totally appropriate pair of jeans on that had no visible defect when I bought them or even wore them today it was an act of nature that no one could fortell and I would just like some understanding to my circumstances

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Originally Posted by ginger91

Nothing beyond trying to refute the point i would be given im just asking for a basic human right to preserve my dignity not in it for a lawsuit and how am i supposed to know that my jeans were defective it wasnt like there was no zipper there to begin with i would understand if i left the house knowingly wearing clothing that would break shortly after arriving but i left home with vwhat was a totally appropriate pair of jeans on that had no visible defect when i bought them or even wore them today it was an act of nature that no one could fortell and i would just like some understanding to my circumstances

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Okay, let's go with that. Your jeans were fine when you left home. They broke while at work.

You went home during your lunch break to change clothes, and you were late getting back.

Let's take a different tact. How is this your employers responsibility? Why should they be short the time you were supposed to work, because your jeans broke?

I do understand your take on this. You didn't plan for your jeans to break. I get that. But, you're not understanding your employers take on this. Your jeans broke, jeans that you chose to wear, and because of that, you went home to change, and you were late.

You seem to think that your employer should be more understanding about this. The fact is, you were late coming back from your lunch break. Your employer employs you to do a job. You weren't there to do that job. They're no more responsible for your jeans breaking than you are, but they're the ones that were short changed. They had every right to be upset, as an employer.

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Originally Posted by Alty

Okay, let's go with that. Your jeans were fine when you left home. They broke while at work.

You went home during your lunch break to change clothes, and you were late getting back.

Let's take a different tact. How is this your employers responsibility? Why should they be short the time you were supposed to work, because your jeans broke?

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I think you are working on this tact with the understanding that I was being paid during the time I was gone but I was not I had punched out of work during the period I had gone home and changed and had no expectation of being compensated for that time I just don't want to be penalized for that period

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Originally Posted by ginger91

I think you are working on this tact with the understanding that i was being paid during the time i was gone but i was not i had punched out of work during the period i had gone home and changed and had no expectation of being compensated for that time i just dont want to be penalized for that period

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No, I didn't think that. You said that you were late coming back from lunch. I don't get paid for lunch either. But, if I'm ten minutes late coming back, that's not my unpaid time, that's their time, and yes, I expect to get penalized for 10 minutes of time that they're paying for, that I'm not working.

If you're 10 minutes late every day, and work 5 days a week, that's almost an hour a week that they're paying you when you're not working. Add that up and it's almost 4 hours a month. Go further and it's almost 48 hours a year. That's over a week off, that they're paying for and you're not working, when you should be.

They wouldn't have been mad if you changed on our time. But you were late getting back, and they have a right to penalize you for that.

Was this the first time you were late either getting back from lunch, or going to work? That may play into it as well. Usually they don't penalize a long term employee that's never had issues with lateness or missed shifts before.

One of the things that bothers me here is the sexual harassment issue. Weren't you wearing underwear? Its one thing for such a malfunction to expose your underwear its another for genitals to be exposed.

Another question here is what type of job do you have? If you were wearing jeans, I assume this is a factory type job. Couldn't you wear an apron or something to cover your front until you could repair the problem?

But the fact remains that you are given a specific amount of time for lunch. Failure to return in time constitutes a lateness. Now I doubt if this should be enough for termination unless you have previously shown a pattern of lateness.

I have a feeling we aren't hearing the whole story. I too wonder what was exposed when the zipper broke. If you wore super tight jeans and a super tiny thong, that might lead to remarks from your boss about sexual harassment and might be what's behind all this grief. I think I would show up for work wearing looser clothing. In fact I would tell management that that is what you will do from now on.

The screen name is ginger but we don't know whether the OP is male or female. And while I know it is a double standard, I just don't see a sexual harassment issue if the OP is female.

But there is clearly more to this.

A reasonable employer would have tried to work around your problem and not penalize you, unless you had a history of coming up with screwball problems that had been affecting your work.

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Originally Posted by smearcase

A reasonable employer would have tried to work around your problem and not penalize you, unless you had a history of coming up with screwball problems that had been affecting your work.

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Smear, I respect your advice, but I can't agree with this.

I work in retail. Jeans are allowed where I work. If someone's jeans break and they have to go home to change, that's fine, but if they're late getting back, either the next person has to take a shorter lunch, or they come back 10 minutes late. It screws everything up.

I've had times when someone went home for lunch, didn't get back on time, so I took a shorter lunch. They ended up getting paid the 10 minutes that I worked for them. Is that fair? I think not.

Lets remember where this was posted "▸ Law ▸ Labor Law " the question was about the law and there appears to be no law that would bar the employer from acting as he did.