Labor Laws of Altador: Are Workers Protected?

My curiosity about the subject was piqued while reading online reviews of the slushie station in question. Many negative reviews cited slow service, seeing only one employee at a time, and a different employee every day, sometimes within the same day. A few others mentioned their plastic cups smelling strange, feeling unusually sticky, or tasting off, as if they were given the incorrect flavor despite the coloration of the slushious beverage matching what they asked for. With the Yooyuball season approaching, I decided to take a little trip to Altador and see what information I could dig up on this pastimes’ number one selling snack.

The timing of my visit meant that the slushie concession station was closed for the off season, and I was unable to get ahold of the corporate offices in charge of managing the concessions. Therefore, I found myself at the Altadorian Archives. With the help of a certain Lenny book keeper, I was able to locate the employment records of the concession stations, and found myself in the residential district of the city, at the doorstep of the last known employee of the concession station. Due to the nature of the information I gathered, I will simply refer to my informant as “the waitress”.

The waitress invited me in for Altadorian melitinias and sun tea, and we immediately began the session. I asked during which Cup she worked, her how long she was working the concession station. She told me her time working the station was during The Altador Cup VII, a whole four years ago- what outdated records!- and she was only employed for a week before being let go. I asked her why she suspected that might be. That’s when the floodgates of suspicious business practices opened. The following is transcribed from the conversation I recorded with the waitress.

“Well,” the waitress told me, “the job was very demanding. Three lines with no particular order to them, and you’re the only person working? It’s very difficult. It’s not something everyone can do. Not very many people can do it well.”

“So your performance on the job was not as optimal as your superiors wanted?” I asked her.

“No, of course not,” She laughed. “It was impossible to meet their standards. They operate on a five strike system. Five mistakes, and you’re out. They’ll hire just about anyone, but they keep strict track of your strikes. They’ll replace you in the middle of the half time snack rush if that’s when you hit your fifth strike.”

“And what sort of ‘mistakes’ warranted a strike?”

“Oh, there were all kinds of things that seemed to get them on your tail-”

“Please refrain from making references to your species. It’s for your own protection.”

“Oh! Oh yes, of course. I apologize. As I was saying, our superiors really brought their fist down, though, in three specific occasions. The first, naturally, was when you failed to fill a customer’s order before they became too annoyed and left. Given the heat in Altador during the summer months and the crowds, it didn’t take long for tempers to flair, especially with only one person to fill ordered. The second was if you wasted a slushie. When the crowds start to rush in, you’d start to get flustered, and sometimes slushie get thrown down the wrong counter. It hurts profits, and then the spills have to be cleaned up, wasting even more time and money…”

“And the third occasion?”

The waitress sighs here, as if this is the hardest part for her to talk about. What she reveals shocks me, and makes me understand exactly why she has such a hard time speaking of it. “Failing to catch slushie cups that patrons slide back down the counter.”

“You were required to dispose of the cups yourself?”

“It’s not as simple as that,” she said. “Those cups. We… how do I put this. I don’t know if you know, being from Neopia Central, but King Altador had begun promoting sustainability a few years before this.”

“I remember. I admired him at the time, standing up for such a good cause.”

“Of course, of course, it was a very good cause! But… He didn’t exactly enforce HOW vendors promoted this sustainability on the business’s level. The concession runners- You said this will all be anonymous, right?”

    “Yes, completely anonymous, besides the information you provide to me in this interview about your time employed at the concession station. This is for a greater cause. The people should know the truth.”

“They should, they should!” The waitress sighs again. “Okay… The concession stand runners saw this sustainability campaign as a way to increase the cost effectiveness of slushie cups. At the time they’d already had their shipment brought in for the season, so rather than purchase more cups, the reuseable kind, they told employees to have customers send the cups back down the counter for reuse.”

“So you had to wash disposable cups for reuse?”

“Well, I had to reuse them, but wash is certainly a subjective action. I had about enough time to rinse them decently before reuse, but a thorough washing would take far too much time. This was usually enough to get the juice from the old slushies out, but sometimes it would stick, and then the next slushie in that cup started to flavor wrong. A few cups got punctured by customers who had claws, and management had me use them until the tears became too big to keep the slushie in.”

“This is disturbing news.”

“As it should be! After my five mistakes I was more than happy to leave that job behind me. I have no idea how the station hasn’t been shut down yet, but… They’re the most popular place for refreshments during the Cup. I suppose I and everyone else who’s worked there hasn’t had the heart to ruin that for everyone. And would they even believe us?”

“Don’t worry. I believe you.”

“Thank you.”

So there you have it, from a first hand account. Perhaps this could have been avoided had some of these mistreated workers taken things to King Altador sooner, but perhaps it is suspect that these sorts of unethical labor practices and violations of health codes Neopiawide have been allowed to go unchecked at all. Does the King not personally investigate the validity of each business that forms in his kingdom? Firing workers after only five mistakes, when the workers are completely on their own is something that should not be tolerated. The reuse of cups not designed for that kind of strain should have been caught by the Neopian Health Organization. We can only hope with the publication of this evidence the king will investigate things now.

This just goes to show, be careful where you eat, or you might end up biting off more than you can chew. This is Stormy Raynes, signing off.