Moderation company refusing to pay for extra work done due to a bug.

AdamPD

I honestly couldn't begin to calculate it, our time on the site isn't logged and I suppose I was naive in thinking they were going to pay us for all the work done, so didn't think to make a note.
But it was definitely more than 7 hours
The two previous months were insignificant in terms of duplicates probably less than 250 tops, vs the thousands in June.
As you and others have said though, if I push this, I will more than likely lose my job
I'm just going to look for another job
It was bad enough they switched us over from a per hourly wage to pay per 120 items, I should've left then, but due to poor health, I wasn't and am not in the position to job search.

AdamPD

Another interesting tidbit I've been finding out is only some of the moderators received the email about not being paid, namely those who did the most work

4 have come back to say they never received it and they did less than 2000 reviews in June.

I was however able to run a report on how many reviews I did yesterday, by the hour.

In total, yesterday I moderated 435 items.
2024-07-18,06:00,2024-07-18,07:00,adam,26,manual
2024-07-18,07:00,2024-07-18,08:00,adam,68,manual
2024-07-18,08:00,2024-07-18,09:00,adam,87,manual
2024-07-18,09:00,2024-07-18,10:00,adam,80,manual
2024-07-18,10:00,2024-07-18,11:00,adam,5,manual
2024-07-18,13:00,2024-07-18,14:00,adam,54,manual
2024-07-18,14:00,2024-07-18,15:00,adam,49,manual
2024-07-18,15:00,2024-07-18,16:00,adam,17,manual
2024-07-18,16:00,2024-07-18,17:00,adam,21,manual
2024-07-18,17:00,2024-07-18,18:00,adam,11,manual
2024-07-18,18:00,2024-07-18,19:00,adam,9,manual
2024-07-18,21:00,2024-07-18,22:00,adam,8,manual
We basically have to grab work as and when it comes in, otherwise another moderator, if they're on, can take it
So it's like fighting over table scraps.
So for those periods of time, I am constantly sitting there with an automatic page refresh running every 15 seconds and you grab one or more reviews, process them, go back to the category and wait.

Dakta

I found this area of minimum wage discussion quite interesting and found this which may or may not be helpful

https://www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/paid-per-task-or-piece-of-work-done#:~:text=Workers paid per task they,piece of work they do

I don't think the fundamental basis of the complaint is changed, even under 'peice' work you were told to do the 'peices' (i.e the buggy peices) and these were done. They cannot unilaterally change the definition of what a valid peice after you've followed the instructions.  

 it sounds to me like 'just another exploitative employer' whose assessed it more profitable to have a high staff turnover and deal with complaints than avoid them, you could do better pretty much anywhere and I'd use that as the long term solution. You can try and claim the missing wages off the employer but just remember you will almost certainly not be given any more 'hours' 



Personally I find this very exploitative and and not an advocate at all of this type of employment full stop. 

AdamPD

Thanks Dakta, I agree, we're all stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I'm 44, I have a slew of health issues, so losing this job would be a nightmare for me.
Can't say it's not depressing how low companies like this will go, though.