My son got a summer job there. He quickly left it for multiple reasons, but this was number one. All the time spent getting in and out of the park before and after his shifts.

Mixed feelings.

On one hand, having worked in large office buildings that might take you 10 minutes to get to your desk from when you hit the front door, large corporate campuses, etc, i'm inclined to count that as part of a persons commute.

On the other hand, Great Adventure is large, and traffic blows getting in there on some days, so you would expect that they should have some type of process to minimize delays for employees

Theres no employee entrance??

There is, it is still a lengthy walk though

I worked there briefly decades ago so I don't know if it's the same routine but I'd have to check in to find out what section of the park I'd be working in, then get the uniform (there was sometimes a wait for this) and change into it before walking to my station. All that could take 45 minutes or longer and it was unpaid.

In that case, in my mind you should be on the clock from the moment you check in. If six flags doesn't want to pay you, they should provide uniforms you can take home, and let you know what to wear and then you dress at home.

Basically once you checked in, you are waiting on your employer, so it should be on their dime.

Worked there in 2006 as a young lad and I thought that was such BS. There was about 30-45 minutes in the morning you spend walking to their bank to get your change for the games, count it then walk to your post which could be 15+ minutes away. This process then repeats at the end of the day. They would only pay you when you were behind the stand even though I'd have to walk THIER money to the bank in the park and wait on line all while not getting paid.

While walking through the park you're expected to stop and help guests if requested, so absolutely you should be getting paid. When I worked there as a kid you'd clock in at the admin building in the employee parking lot, then get your till (if applicable) and head to your location via the secret exit by the Gotham stadium. And you'd continue to be on the clock until you checked out at the same place you clocked in, which is right next to the employee parking lot

What about liability, they get hit by a golf cart on prem how should they be covered?

Yeah that's not legal. Hence the lawsuit.

That's exactly the issue. When I worked at Wawa counting the drawer was paid time. Sick flags hasn't done that and its almost definitely illegal.

The same as if i get hit by a car in my offices parking lot on the way to my desk...

so like...it depends.

Interesting! They deducted part of my pay when I worked there in 2009 for this exact reason.

That's a problem you're on your company's property you should be covered under work comp

Why shouldn't a commute be compensated these days?

Especially now that WFH is an option, and most people are priced out of living in the communities they work in, commutes should be part of your compensation package. I commute almost 3 hours round trip for my job, and I'm a fucking high school teacher making peanuts.

It’s a long as fuck walk depending on where you work in the park. I worked El Toro back during the summer of 2010 or so, and I essentially had to walk all the way from the employee entrance (located on the far end of the parking lot, past the path to main gates) across the park to the far opposite corner where Toro was. The whole time getting stopped by people asking for directions and other assorted questions.

They also didn’t fill the water tank for one of my afternoon shifts on a hot day. I had to plead with a security guard to take my post for a few minutes so I could run to the bathroom. He kept refusing until I told him I was going to get sick in front of him and he’d have to deal with that if he didn’t let me go. Finally went, and I guess I passed out due to heat stroke because I woke up being carted to First Aid…where, one I was fully mobile again, they told me they couldn’t send me home and then gave me a “note” and told me to get back to work…but someone else had clicked me out the moment I was carted off and never told anyone. Fuck Six Flags.

Well, it is, generally speaking, if you are negotiating for your pay. I've worked jobs with really shitty commutes where it was worth it, and i've worked shit jobs with awesome commutes where it wasn't.

In the case of six flags here, there are extraneities here that aren't present in other jobs. I'd wager this case falls right along labor laws (some with good intentions intended) and six flags will end up having to settle or split the difference and make some changes. Six flags could also argue though, "Hey we pay 15 year olds 18 bucks an hour to sell cotton candy, we are accounting for those hassles in our wages"

This is absolutely the right call. I worked there for several years in the late 90s/early 2000s, but in the Employment Services Office, which is one of the first buildings you encounter after passing through the employee gate. In-park employees would come into my office before their shift to wait for till slips (games and food service, usually), which they couldn't get until AFTER they were in uniform. You have the option to exchange your uniform for a clean one at the end of the day or the start of it, but neither option was paid. So they wait for their uniforms, wait for their till slips, wait at cash control for their actual cash, and then walk through the park to their assigned spot where they "started working". They used to complain to us all the time, but we were just the pawns of the oppressors. We agreed it sucked out loud, and always did our best to minimize the wait, but when the office was flooded with people there was only so much you could do. I even did a stint in laundry, where the uniforms are exchanged, and that wait could be massive at a big shift change.

I forget which company bought the park from WB, but things went massively downhill at that point. It seemed to suck a lot less when WB was still running the show.

I find it hard to equate an office job to an outdoor job at an amusement park.

I worked Rides and Security there in the 00s. Did something change because we went to and from work all the time in uniform. Not everyone changed at work and we punched in at Ops so the walk to our assignment was always paid.