GARMENT WORKERS: PERCEPTIONS OF INEQUITY AND EMPLOYEE THEFT

This paper is concerned with the question of what garment workers did when they felt they were treated inequitably or unfairly at work. Did unfair treatment lead to employee theft? By conducting 16 semi-structured interviews with retired garment workers and employing a qualitative analysis, it was learned that neither employee theft nor other forms of deviance were often selected when responding to matters involving inequity. In only a few cases was there any indication that theft occurred as a result of the worker feeling he or she did not receive what was owed to him or her. This can be explained by the influence of the work group and the institutional mechanisms developed by the union. Lumber and hardware chains, one in Pennsylvania and one in Tennessee, were surprised to discover from loss-control managers that drivers had built two entire homes from material looted from the employer. (Bottom and Kostanoski, 1983, p.20) Estimates of the cost of employee theft are astronomical. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (N.C.C.D.) has put the amount at 15 per cent, of the United States gross national product (1978, p.5). The' hidden costs include: small business failures (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1974), lost jobs, lost health care, lost capital investments, defaulted loans, and inflated prices (Canadian Business, Editors, 1976). In one midwestern company, a majority of its arbitrated employee complaints concerned issues relating to employee theft (N.C.C.D., 1978). What is needed is an explanation for this type of behaviour that permits us to understand employee theft within the context of the work setting, and thus take some action to reduce it.