Schurman Fine Papers Dba Papyrus Managers and Assistant Mgrs. misclassified as exempt so they work more and not get paid overtime awfull working conditions Fairfield California

Schurman Fine Papers based in Fairfield, CA and doing retail business as Papyrus, sellers of stationary, gift cards, and gifts. Papyrus has, in the past, and still continuing practices of misclassifying its managers and assistant managers as "exempt" employees instead of "non-exempt" employees under California Labor Law.

Almost all (if not all) of Papyrus managers and assistant managers work more than 40 hours per week. I was one of its manager, and I was not the only one working 50-70 hours per week, and I know the fact that Papyrus continues to practice this deprivation of its managers/assistant managers from overtime pay. Although managers/assistant managers are salaried employees, they work more than 50% of their time at the job locations engaged in non-managerial activities. They sell the products to customers, they stock inventory, they pack and unpack shipment of merchandise, they pretty much do a lot of the same things that hourly employee do.

Each store location given certain payroll hours to meet, and recently after the inventory taking, Papyrus cut the payroll hours to bare minimum, of which in one business day in a certain period of time, there will be only two people working (and one of them, must be either a store manager, assistant manager or key holder). With this condition, the Manager On Duty (MOD)must stay in the store, she or he is not allowed to leave the store. This is a violation of California Labor Law of break time and meal period; and it is a deprivation and violation of human rights to have a person to relieve her/himself to go to the restroom.

This awfull working conditions worsens since the arrival of Papyrus' new West Coast Regional Manager, Germanico Cruz in October 2004. He is someone who has a power trip, and wants to show everyone under his supervision that he is the authority. He often comes to stores and tell the Managers or Assistant Managers to stay overnight, just because he was not too happy about how the store looks and wants to change the look of the stores. If you don't do as he ask, you d**n sure you will get either a verbal warning, written warning, or dismissal. To make the working condition worse in Southern California District, Germanico Cruz, the ever so authoritarian West Coast Regional Manager, brought a new District Manager in late November 2004, Doug Kwalek, of whom have very minimal experience in Retail business. Doug Kwalek, was working for Schurman Fine Papers in the IT Department. Wow! Makes me wonder if this is a merit promotion? or is this a preferential treatment? The worse part of all these is that in front of me and Germanico Cruz said that he will work much better and improve the stores in the district much better than the previous District Manager. Lip Service?? Definitely! Because I know for a fact, that Doug Kwalek did not even show up and visit stores when he was supposed to be in the stores (I get all these facts from other managers, even after I was not employed by Papyrus anymore).

Now, where is this going? Well, Schurman Fine Papers dba Papyrus is owing us (Ex and existing Managers and Assistant Managers) the overtime pay for making all of us working overtime, and deprived us from our break time and meal period. Customers may know the facade of the stores (nice, huh?), quality products (some of them, I agree), BUT CUSTOMERS SHOULD ALSO KNOW THAT PAPYRUS TREATS ITS EMPLOYEES LIKE SLAVES!! PLEASE DO NOT SUPPORT COMPANY LIKE PAPYRUS, IF YOU THINK SWEAT SHOPS IN ASIA IS BAD, WHAT ABOUT COMPANY LIKE PAPYRUS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY DOING THE EXACT SAME THING? DEPRIVING ITS OWN EMPLOYEES FROM WHAT THEY DESERVED AND EARNED????
THANK YOU FOR READING AND SUPPORTING US, NOT PAPYRUS!

Ex manager
Los Angeles District, California
U.S.A.