The reduction of minimum wage jobs in America continues to be a growing problem not only because of outsourcing, but also due to technological advances. When you mix both those things together it makes some people wonder if there will be minimum wage jobs left for North Americans in the future. Recently the restaurant Freshii combined outsourcing with technology as it has North Americans very angry.
Details on Why Freshii Virtual Cashier From Nicaragua Has North Americans Furious
Freshii now has virtual cashiers, which consists of person on computer screen wearing a headset who talks to you and helps you as you’re checking out. Similar to how some luxury hotels now have concierges who work from the Philippines, the Freshii Virtual Cashiers are in Nicaragua. By outsourcing their cashier jobs overseas Freshii is able to pay them $3.75 per hour rather than minimum wage.
People in Canada and United States have been complaining about workers wages and rights for a long time. Naturally with Freshii now outsourcing cashier jobs to people overseas the general public sees this as a form of suppressing workers wages and rights. It takes power away from labor unions when a company doesn’t need physical workers anymore. In addition people have noticed more Freshii restaurants opening lately, which may be due to them cutting costs by outsourcing jobs.
Details on How Some People Plan to Boycott Freshii Over Virtual Cashiers From Nicaragua
Many people online have described this situation as a ‘Vote with your wallet and labor situation’. They have urged people to boycott Freshii by not shopping or working there. Others are taking a political approach by imploring the Canadian government to extend labor laws to digital employees for example. They all believe Freshii is doing anything possible to not have to pay fair wages to people in North American countries.
Most likely Freshii’s Virtual cashiers from Nicaragua are part time contractors that were hired by using an agency, which means they would have very few legal responsibilities regarding them. From a business standpoint it was genius move that will definitely save them a ton of money, but from a PR standpoint this was a disastrous idea that could harm their profits in the long run.
