‘Adopt an ATM’ Program for B of A Workers Is Lambasted
Bank of America this week publicized a voluntary “adopt an ATM” program under which it encouraged bank employees to go out and find one special cash machine to care for.
Among the tasks employees were encouraged to perform were picking up trash around “their” automated teller machines, wiping them down with window cleaner and a soft cloth, and making sure lighting was adequate at night.
Pruning back shrubbery and visiting the ATM at least once a week was also suggested, with employees donating both the time and the necessary cleaning materials to keep the bank’s 14,000 California ATMs spic and span.
The bank described the program as a morale booster for its 160,000 workers, who have been buffeted by layoffs and are under pressure to reduce expenses.
But when California Labor Commissioner Marcy Saunders heard about the program, she had a different reaction: It’s against the law.
“Notwithstanding the purported ‘voluntary’ nature of employee participation, your employees must be compensated for all time spent in connection with--and any work connected with--the ‘Adopt an ATM’ program,” Saunders wrote in a letter to Bank of America President Michael Murray.
Saunders’ letter demanded that the program be abolished or radically changed.
“This is not an issue that is up for negotiation,” Saunders said in the letter, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. “The labor code is very clear on what rules employers have to abide by.”
Bank of America officials were not immediately available for comment. But a bank spokesman told the Chronicle that Saunders’ letter was “an overreaction to a voluntary program by someone who is not fully acquainted with the facts.”
“We look forward to an opportunity to show the labor commissioner what we are actually doing,” spokesman Peter Magnani said.
“We are confident that once she is fully familiar with the details of the program, she will agree that we have acted lawfully and in good faith on behalf of both our associates and customers.”
