I object..
I don't even know where to start.. the past few days have been absolute hell. We won the battle, but I'm afraid the war has just begun. To sum things up, here's an email we sent to Andy's new boss, (who he started with on the first of this month and hadn't received a paycheck yet, forcing me to use my personal credit line to pay our living expenses)... I wrote the email, after several conversations with the
Bureau of Labor & Industries.
Mr. B***,
Since I began work for you at the beginning of May, I have not received a paycheck, nor have you maintained a regular pay or work schedule. I have spent many days 'on-call' from seven o'clock in the morning until late into the evening. On more than one occasion, after several phone conversations with you and several promises that we would be working that day, I went to bed after midnight without hearing from you a final time. I am sure that I don't need to inform you that such behavior places me in an 'engaged to wait' status, (
taken from Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries website; "if the calls are so frequent or the conditions so restrictive that an employee cannot use the time effectively for his/her own benefit they are considered as "engaged to wait," in which case the time spent waiting will be compensable by law.") We have had several conversations about this, and I have been more than patient with your lack of communication, poor time management skills, and apparent inability to ever do as you say you will.
I was in good standing in my previous job. I had benefits, a regular pay and work schedule, and I was always given 40 hours per week. I left that job based on your promises that I would have a full-time, 40 hour per week schedule, that I would not be working evenings or weekends, and that I would be paid for my work in a timely and efficient manner. You did not bother to inform me that you did not plan to pay me until the end of the month until a few days ago, even when we'd had more than one discussion about it prior to that time. Further to that, during these discussions, I informed you that I could not afford less than a full month's pay this month. You failed to inform me at that time that, at the end of this month, you only planned to pay me for two weeks of work. Oregon law requires that you, the employer, must establish and maintain regular paydays. I have been employed with your company for twenty five days and you still have not done so. I have spoken with the Bureau of Labor and Industries about this matter. They advised me to file a complaint, and the paperwork to do so has been mailed to me.
I would like to inform you what I have had to do this month, failing any compensation from your company.
* Borrowed $300 from my father-in-law, to pay vet and phone bills
* Borrowed funds from my own family to buy groceries
* Used $500 of my wife's line of credit at her bank, to pay other miscellaneous bills
In addition to that, due to our excessive pre-employment conversations on my mobile phone, my monthly minutes were exceeded, costing me an additional $150, which I will not be compensated for. Due to having to substitute a paycheck with my wife's credit line, I am now paying interest on funds that would otherwise have been straight compensation from you. I hope that you realize now what this is doing to my family.
It has become increasingly clear that you were not ready to hire me on when you did. Between issues in your personal life (ie., girlfriend not having a car, forcing me to take multiple afternoons off from work because you had to run her around and were unable to train me or leave me in the office alone), and unresolved issues with other employees (James calling in sick several days in a work week, forcing me to take entire days off because you had to cover for him in the field and were, again, not available to train me), I fail to understand why you did not either resolve these issues prior to hiring me, or wait until they were resolved to hire me to begin with. As it stands now, I have not even been able to have a personal life due to never knowing what my work schedule will be the following day, (or even that day!) and having to wait at home for your phone calls, or having you call me (as you did yesterday) when I had attempted to run a quick errand at 11am, to tell me that you were here, at my home, to pick me up for work, when I was actually scheduled (according to our conversation two days prior,) 3pm-10pm. Since I began work for you, I have been forced not to work on days I was available, and forced to work during days and times not agreed to when I was hired. I have spent entire days at home, 'on-call', afraid to leave to get groceries or run other errands because I never know when you'll be showing up, expecting me to work. During these days, I receive several phone calls from you, stating that we'll be working 'in a few minutes', which changes to an hour, which changes to a few hours, and by then it's late evening and I fail to hear from you again. Or, as was the case on the day mentioned above, you simply show up at my home to pick me up without prior arrangement with me. It has become increasingly clear to me that you expect me to be available, home, and ready to work, at any time you see fit, scheduled or not. Placing me in this type of situation demands compensation for the time spent waiting when I would otherwise have a set schedule, and hence, set 'off-time'.
In addition to the issues mentioned above, although I have been working for you for almost a full month, you have also failed to provide me with a W-4 tax form, which contains important information needed to determine my net pay.
This is what I will require going forward if I am to continue to work for your company:
* Set weekly schedule
* Set bi-monthly pay schedule
* Very limited to no evenings and/or weekend work* (as was mutually agreed on prior to my decision to leave my previous job for this one)
* Adequate training which will enable me to perform the duties I was hired to do independent of your supervision
I further expect to be paid in full for on-call time and all hours worked thus far. This can be simplified by paying me my hourly wage at 40 hours each week since my hire date of May 1, 2006. If you would rather itemize it, I think you will find it will cost you more than a salaried-type arrangement, since on Monday, May 22nd alone I was 'on-call' from 10am (when you first called me to discuss the schedule for that day) until 9pm, when you determined I would, in fact, not be working that day.
I sincerely hope we can resolve these issues in a prompt and mutually beneficial manner, without the involvement of the court system and/or state agencies. As you know, my work ethic is strong, and I feel that we can maintain a good working relationship once these challenges have been dealt with. I hope you will agree.
Sincerely,
-------------
In a nutshell, the guy hasn't done a single thing he's said he would, (not a single one!) and it began to look as though he didn't plan to pay Andy at all, (since he never bothered to have Andy fill out any new-hire paperwork, tax forms, etc.) We ended up meeting with him, and he tried to talk his way out of it, spouting some ridiculous bullshit about how Andy needed to 'believe' in the business and have faith, blah, blah, blah, which he quickly realized wasn't going to work anymore and that I wasn't going to have it. I asked him outright when he planned on paying Andy, and he said "I would really prefer to just speak with your husband about this", so I replied, "That's fine.. however, since I am financing his employment with you using
my credit line, just write me a check for $500 and I'll gladly go wait in the car". Well, that shut him the fuck up right there!
Needless to say, I took control of the conversation, in my normal 'attorney-speak' fashion, provided him with the hours Andy expected to be paid for, explained the labor laws to him (mind you, this is a 50-odd year old man who supposedly has owned his own business for many years and should fucking goddamned know the laws by now!) provided him with copies of the paperwork we received from the Bureau of Labor & Industries detailing our complaint, and advised him that, aside from filing grievances with the appropriate state agencies, we would also be pursuing a lawsuit against him if he refuses to pay him for the hours he worked.
He obviously thought that since Andy is a nice guy, his wife would be timid and a total pushover. It became painfully apparent to him who
not to mess with out of the two of us. His attitude changed quickly, followed by many apologies sprinkled with excuses, and by the end of the conversation, he was white, shaky, and writing Andy a check for a month's pay :) He also brought the tax paperwork (W-4 forms and such) for Andy to fill out, which they both dated 05/01/06, Andy's hire date. My Dad always tells me I missed my calling, and that I should have been an attorney.
I came home, took some migraine meds and passed out. I love confrontation, but it does take a toll on your body, especially if, like me, you have high blood pressure, heart issues and other health problems that are aggravated by stress. I did get my warrior-woman fix with the verbal boxing match, however, and that part was actually fun. I tend to be rather intimidating when the situation calls for it, and I rather enjoy watching people squirm. I still don't trust the slimy bastard further than I can spit, so this morning we went and cashed the check at his bank, rather than put it in one of our accounts and then have him stop payment on it or some stupid shit like that. We got the money, took it to my credit union and paid off my credit line, deposited the rest, but I have a bad feeling this is simply one of many battles to come, and needless to say, Andy is looking for a new job.
