Two giant Minnesota-based retailers - Target and Best Buy - face a groundswell of protest and online petitions from their own employees who are objecting at having to work on Thanksgiving and the early morning hours of "Black Friday." These employees have begun petitions on a website called change.org that allows users to start a petition online. The employee-petitioners believe "A full holiday with family is not just for the elite of this nation -- all Americans should be able to break bread with loved ones and get a good night's rest on Thanksgiving!" To date, the petition related to Target has over 160,460 online supporters, while the Best Buy petition has over 9,300 supporters.
Unfortunately for these employees, they can be required to work the hours dictated by their employer. Granted, they are entitled to receive additional pay for having to work on a holiday and would also be entitled to overtime pay if they were to work over 40 hours that week. However, they likely would have no legal protection if their employers chose to terminate them for starting and/or signing these petitions. Moreover, the employees could not make a "freedom of speech" argument because the Constitution constrains the government from trampling on your First Amendment rights, not private employers.
My guess, however, is that these two companies are sophisticated enough to recognize the PR backlash that may ensue if they terminated these folks for raising these issues. My guess is this will all blow over. Until next year...
