Deadbeat Employers

[Jumper]

Anyone got any good ideas how to get an ex-employer to cough up the eight days of pay he has owed me since the beginning of September, short of going to small claims court? This is ridiculous, supposedly one of the more "educated" pillars of the tree biz here and he is being a jerk like this. Most normal people simply would have forwarded a cheque to my home once it became apparent that I was not coming back-there was no arguement or friction at the time, I simply needed a break from the work situation, and explained it as such . Perhaps I am at fault for not more rigourously pursuing this over the past six months, and I realize things are slow at present, but he should have been able to pay me earlier.

 

[mrtree]

Maybe ask him for it.

Of course if it was CA, you will be lucky

 

[Jumper]

Originally posted by mrtree
Maybe ask him for it.

Three times so far.

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[Kevin]

Is Goldhawk still in business?

Goldhawk Fights Back


Thursday, February 06, 2003


CCNA's Syndication Service is now syndicating Dale Goldhawk's Goldhawk Fights Back. Goldhawk and his team solve problems, chase bad guys and fight for change. For the past 35 years, Goldhawk has been a journalist, writer, broadcaster and host in Canadian newspapers, radio, television and on the Internet.

 

[treeslayer]

gallon of roundup, a sprayer, his front yard and the dark of night.
and an antifreeze biscuit for his dog.

How is your time documented?
is he in a chamber of commerce?

 

[Treeman14]

You left the job with no notice and no explanation, right?
That left him short of help and probably caused scheduling problems, perhaps loss of income or disgruntled customers. From the employer's perspective, you screwed him and caused some major headaches.

You don't deserve to get paid. Suck it up and move on.

 

[rborist1]

:Eye:

 

[Jumper]

For the record, I got sick and could not work. I was never asked for a reason why, just got an email saying my services were no longer required which was OK by me. All I do know is that I did not get paid the full week before, and the three days immediately following Labour Day. We will not deal with the harrassing female employee read b*tch I dealt with the second day to the last, aside from saying I am too much of a gent to have told her to go f*ck herself. This excuse of an employer had already been late with the paycheques once in the three weeks I was there with absolutely no explanation or apology to five employees, thus I do not feel I owed him too much in the way of loyalty. Perhaps treeman14 this is the way things work in the USA, but I can assure you, along with rborist1, that there are Labour laws here to protect workers from this kind of thing. At the very least he did not pay me 4% vacation pay for these eight days, plus an additional 14 previous, which is very clearly spelled out in the law. Problem is is takes time and effort, and ultimately his money, on my part to pursue this, and there has to be a way to "encourage" him to come around to my way of thinking. Barring that I do know where his keys to his lockup are kept for starters, he has a 1-800 number that could incurr a whole pile of charges due to repeated calls to his office in the middle of the night, and his vehicles are left in an unlocked unguarded compound, so there are other possibilities. To quote Joseph P Kennedy, don't get mad, get even. But when you are dealing with someone with the mentality of this, not unlike the problems at present with Saddam, it is difficult to convince the person he is ultimately going to lose the arguement, question is how messy will it get??

Time was documented by pay cards which he has, but if necessary in court, a witness could be found in Toronto to back up my claims. Days were basically 0700-1530 with half hour off for lunch, so eight hours each. Unfortunaltey one never thinks they are not going to get paid so does not keep day to day records of things. First time this has ever happened to me.

As for the comment above re Goldhawk, we have a daily column in the Ottawa Citizen "Action Line" by Tony Cote that addresses these types of situations. Could be rather embarressing reading all about your company and its problems therein, along with the rest of the city.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Treeman 14,

Think of it another way. Let's say that you're paid $10 per hour. For some reason, one day you lolly gag on a job and don't produce at 100%. That happens most times, in fact, studies find that at the end of the week we all fall short of 100% production for forty hours. Can your employer work out a coefficient that equates your wages with your productivity and then tells YOU to suck it up? How long would you be around?

If people are on the payroll and don't produce, get them off the payroll BUT an employer is legally and morally obligated to pay for the time on the clock.

In a capitalistic labor system the work obligation is a two way street [ideally]. Workers produce and employers pay for the production. Pretty simple.

Document all of your information about employment, wages, hours worked, etc. Lay out a chronology. Let the guy know that unless you have a check within a reasonable, you decide, time, you'll forward the case to concilliation court or labor department for collection.

I had to do that with a guy who I worked for one season. He let me go instead of paying me about $7k comp time. After going to conciliation court I got $3k even though I had all of my work hours documented and he had nothing. He still has $4k of my wages in his pocket. Hard to let go of that, don't you think?

Unless you fight for your money, you won't get it.

There is a sense of power to be gained from knowing that you could throw a brick through his window, figuratively, but don't. If you throw the brick, you'll end up getting into trouble, but you know that

Let us know how this is resolved, OK?

Tom

 

[Jumper]

Wilco. I have given him until tomorrow to cough up the $$$$, and will pursue things legally from there, though I have not had too much luck with dealing with the legal system lately! (nothing I did)

 

[MidwestTree]

Treeman14, If the work was completed then the man should be paid. I bet you would throw a fit if you had completed work for a customer and they decided not to pay because you didn't return for a second project that they decided to have done. Once an hour of work is completed then it is down on the books. I bet the owner made money off of this man's labor. He should then get his agreed upon "cut", no more no less.

 

[kf_tree]

a friend of mine worked as a network consultant. the company he was working for owed him 7500.00. he had his contract documented.
if he did not have a girl friend that worked for a lawyer's office he would have let it go. but he ended up getting 7,000. out of it. if he had to do it on his own he never would have pursued it.

your in a tough position. is it worth a revenge mission for a weeks pay? it never is...... so don't get your self upset over it. in a few weeks i'll probably end up working for a company i don't trust. but my ground rules are i expect to get paid by the DAY. if i don't leave with cash in hand they know i'll go home with a 3120xp.
it flat out sucks that your not getting paid for work performed. i ALWAYS paid employee's even when i thought their work sucked, and i was firing them. i was a always afraid an unhappy employee would come back and burn my trucks. just keep in mind what goes around comes around. he'll get his in the end.

 

[Jumper]

The problem was not with my work, I got sick plain and simple and could not work at least the one day in question. Combine that with a almost 2.5 hour return commute, routine screw ups(cutting down the wrong tree, dropping huge blocks on the neighbours' fence etc) due to poor supervision and planning, and a less than happy group of campers, I was not choked up when I got an email terminating my employment. Even then he could not come clean, as it was written off to no longer being required due to a municipal project being completed etc, and the same week he was advertising for another person on the government Job Bank site. The amount not received is eight days, or at least $700 gross which is not exactly a small amount of change.

 

[kf_tree]

i never doubted your work. but unless you have a contract and, or willing to take him to court, your kind of screwed.
sorry.

 

[Jumper]

Court it will be I guess, and he will also be paying all the associated costs when he loses. Small claims court in front of a judge......to date he never has told me I am not owed the $$$$, just hasn't coughed it up.

 

[Treeman14]

He He. Sorry, guys. I am SOOOO bad. I just can't help ruffling some feathers now and then. :angel:

Seriously, I've always paid terminated employees promptly, even when I knew they had stolen equipment from me, simply because I had no solid evidence. Jumper, you need to get on this guy immediately. As you know, any receivable becomes increasingly difficult to collect as time passes. Start documenting all conversations and correspondence, and make some notes about the time period involved. Which jobs were you on, who was working with you, etc. All that will bolster your case if it goes to court. Good luck.

 

[Jumper]

I have done so already, so I am just about set to got git 'em. I am also chasing the first company I was with (it closed down) for my tax info sheets, T4s up here, which were supposed to be in my hand 28 February so I can send in my return and get my refund.

 

[NeTree]

Make him an offah he cannot refusah...