Is Scientology breaking the law?

Allegations of violation of labor laws by Scientology

Excerpted from http://www.scientology-lies.com/re.cgi?http://www.entheta.net/entheta/1stpersn/warrior/1997-003.htm . Please see that page for the full text.

Emphasis added in red . Editorial comments, when added, are in purple .


"Warrior" describes being horribly underpaid and receiving little time off

From: Warrior <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,alt.religion.christianity
Subject: Scientology lied to me over and over for years
Date: 23 May 1997 17:38:56 -0700
Message-ID: <[email protected]>

In 1973 I signed a staff contract at the local Class IV Org. I worked evenings and weekends as a Foundation (nighttime and weekends) staff member. I had a day job that I was not going to give up since I was worried about how much my pay would be as a staff member of Scientology. My worries turned out to be well-founded.

I will never forget how astonished and disbelieving I was when payday came after my first week as a staff member. I had worked approximately 48 hours my first week. My pay was $7.00 ... Granted, I was a newbie with much to learn; but then I was earning about $120 - $150 per week managing a restaurant for my day job which I put in an average of 40 - 50 hrs/wk. At only $3.00 per hour, my day job wasn't making me rich either, but at least I was able to work my schedule around my classes at the University, and food was available to me at what it cost the restaurant owner. So I was happy.

In 1975 I joined the Sea Organization of the "Church" of Scientology.

That turned out to be the biggest mistake of my life.

I didn't realize it at the time of signing my contract, but the Sea Org Recruiter (Steve Grant) from ASHO Day had lied to me about every aspect of the Sea Organization's living conditions.

2) He lied about pay and bonuses that I would receive , saying that base pay was not all we received, but that we would get bonuses for good production. Bonuses were all but non-existent. Oh I do recall getting a $2.50 "bonus" once! What the recruiter (and everyone else) failed to tell me was that there would be *many* weeks that we would receive _NO_ pay.

4) He lied about time off from post. I had been told I would be given time to pursue my interests in music, that I would be given weekends off, and that nighttimes were my own time when I wasn't on course. In reality, staff never got more than one day per week off. Usually it was half of a Saturday, every other week. When we were not on post we were ordered onto study or auditing ("enhancement time").

 

Warrior

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