What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania, USA
First and foremost, I work in a "at-will" state. I work in Pennsylvania and the "corporate office" is in New York and yes I am an employee not an independant contractor.
I work per-diem (piece rate) and not hourly rate. Now, realistically I'm curious if technically I would have a "start time" and "end time"? I don't want to get an answer like "look in your handbook". As far as end time would go realistically it's whenever I get done with my installations/service calls for the day, and when I am done with my work for the day I do not have to go back to the warehouse and tell them I am done I go straight home, again in the company van.
At any rate, the company lets us take the company owned vans home with us, so in my opinion when I'm in the van (driving home, or even driving to the warehouse to pickup materials, paycheck, etc. I feel as though I'm working. (right or wrong?)
So, onto the background now, I have a 1 year old daughter. My wife works third shift 11pm-7am, my drive to the warehouse takes approximately 20-25 minutes so I am technically driving to the warehouse from 7:30 and arriving at 8am. The reason I state that is due to the fact, my "scheduled" (as in installs/service calls are within a 8-5 timeframe) work day is 8am-5pm would that not classify me as starting my work day at 7:30am and not 8am when I arrive at the warehouse? Needless to say, I arrived at the warehouse today at 8:05am, which being it's a Monday (payday, paperwork turn-in) they would like (more like, expect) us to be at the warehouse early as in 6:30am, again not being paid for that time. I don't get paid drive time, nor anytime I am at the warehouse, I get paid strictly for the installation, service call. The only way I think the company gets around not paying us for the drive time, warehouse time is due to the fact that anyone in the business is realistically getting paid minimum wage no matter how many hours you work because the pay per install/service call is very good, so you would have to "work" more than 80 hours or so a week to not be getting paid minimum wage.
Again, sorry for taking so long to get to the point, but I've told multiple supervisors on multiple occasions that due to my childcare issues (noone being able to watch my daughter) on Mondays I could not make it in any earlier than 8am (which was agreed upon by multiple supervisors throughout my tenure with the company), which on a good drive day is possible. Today being there was a little more congestion than normal I arrived 5 minutes "late" (again there is no real "start" time). So pretty much they essentially said I would be getting suspended for 1 week, which I really didn't think nothing of since I had a job at least. When you get suspended they "exit" you from the van (taking all you personal belongings until the suspension is over) and do a tool inspection (making sure everything is still there and not lost/stolen) when it came time to show them the company paid gas card (which is supposed to be in the van at all times) wasn't in the van and it was at my house (another story entirely and no I didn't use it for my personal vehicle) that is when they literally right after I told them I would have to give it to the supervisor driving me home is when they terminated me.
My 2 questions are, would that constitute me being eligible for unemployment (yes I already filed, but id like some opinions as to if I may be eligible in this situation) and secondly would it constitute any sort of legal action being as though the whole drive time to work in the company vehicle, being classified as working?
Thanks for any comments, suggestions.
First and foremost, I work in a "at-will" state. I work in Pennsylvania and the "corporate office" is in New York and yes I am an employee not an independant contractor.
I work per-diem (piece rate) and not hourly rate. Now, realistically I'm curious if technically I would have a "start time" and "end time"? I don't want to get an answer like "look in your handbook". As far as end time would go realistically it's whenever I get done with my installations/service calls for the day, and when I am done with my work for the day I do not have to go back to the warehouse and tell them I am done I go straight home, again in the company van.
At any rate, the company lets us take the company owned vans home with us, so in my opinion when I'm in the van (driving home, or even driving to the warehouse to pickup materials, paycheck, etc. I feel as though I'm working. (right or wrong?)
So, onto the background now, I have a 1 year old daughter. My wife works third shift 11pm-7am, my drive to the warehouse takes approximately 20-25 minutes so I am technically driving to the warehouse from 7:30 and arriving at 8am. The reason I state that is due to the fact, my "scheduled" (as in installs/service calls are within a 8-5 timeframe) work day is 8am-5pm would that not classify me as starting my work day at 7:30am and not 8am when I arrive at the warehouse? Needless to say, I arrived at the warehouse today at 8:05am, which being it's a Monday (payday, paperwork turn-in) they would like (more like, expect) us to be at the warehouse early as in 6:30am, again not being paid for that time. I don't get paid drive time, nor anytime I am at the warehouse, I get paid strictly for the installation, service call. The only way I think the company gets around not paying us for the drive time, warehouse time is due to the fact that anyone in the business is realistically getting paid minimum wage no matter how many hours you work because the pay per install/service call is very good, so you would have to "work" more than 80 hours or so a week to not be getting paid minimum wage.
Again, sorry for taking so long to get to the point, but I've told multiple supervisors on multiple occasions that due to my childcare issues (noone being able to watch my daughter) on Mondays I could not make it in any earlier than 8am (which was agreed upon by multiple supervisors throughout my tenure with the company), which on a good drive day is possible. Today being there was a little more congestion than normal I arrived 5 minutes "late" (again there is no real "start" time). So pretty much they essentially said I would be getting suspended for 1 week, which I really didn't think nothing of since I had a job at least. When you get suspended they "exit" you from the van (taking all you personal belongings until the suspension is over) and do a tool inspection (making sure everything is still there and not lost/stolen) when it came time to show them the company paid gas card (which is supposed to be in the van at all times) wasn't in the van and it was at my house (another story entirely and no I didn't use it for my personal vehicle) that is when they literally right after I told them I would have to give it to the supervisor driving me home is when they terminated me.
My 2 questions are, would that constitute me being eligible for unemployment (yes I already filed, but id like some opinions as to if I may be eligible in this situation) and secondly would it constitute any sort of legal action being as though the whole drive time to work in the company vehicle, being classified as working?
Thanks for any comments, suggestions.
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