Guitarmonster
Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ
Ok, I work for a car dealership and lately had an issue with a manager. I made a small mistake when I sold a used car to someone. I forgot to make sure there was an owner's manual in the glove compartment. It happens all the time and all we have to do is walk back to the parts department and they hand us one and we throw it in there. I just forgot to check, the customer got home and called about it. Of course we apologized and told her we would give her one. After the call my manager flipped out on me and said "that's ok, we'll just take it out of your paycheck". I told him that you cannot take money out of my paycheck without my authorization. His eyebrows raised and he said "ok, we'll see who's right". At the end of the day I was terminated. I then got a call 2 days later from another manager who was very nice to me. He asked me if I would like to work at their other location. I went down there and he was very nice to me, he said "don't worry about what happened over there, you didn't do anything wrong, we feel you will be a better fit here". So far he's right, I fit very well with the management team, and i have been praised by all of them so far. When I got my check (which was for my last week at the first location), it was $100 short. I then called the other location to ask them to fax over my "pay sheet", the pay sheet is basically a breakdown of your salary, as well as each of the individual deals you sold. The manager subtracted $100 from the deal with the missing manual. I even asked one of my managers to go into the computer and verify what the comission payout is, he said it was exactly $100 more than I got and he was very confused as to why I got what I did. So clearly this manager needed to prove a point to me, that he can play with my money. I kept calling to get my pay sheets and kept getting the run around, I finally had to call someone else to literally "sneak" it over to the fax machine and fax it to me. So clearly they were trying their hardest to hide the paper trail from me. I've been asking about the $100 and have been told to "forget about it" and "just move on". I am not willing to do that. So I have come to the conclusion that I may end up filing a wage claim with the department of labor, which will result in a lengthy and painful payroll audit (i've seen one before and their not pretty). I'm sure when this happens they are going to fire me, again. I'm assuming that when they do fire me that i'm automatically protected under the Conscientious employee protection act, or the "whistleblower act". The question is when they do fire me, how do I hire a lawyer to help me when I have no money as a result of my losing my job? Are there lawyers that take these types of cases on for free if they feel they have a solid case? Before I take actions is there anything I should do to build up evidence, like wear a tape recorder, gather documents, etc? I'm not sure what to do. I know most people may say "just let it go", but if I do that, then i'm basically sending them the message "it's ok to do this", and they will probably do it a lot more. Also I really need the money, I have bills to pay and believe it or not that $100 is making a difference in my financial situation. I just want to get some advice so I can thoroughly plan things out and do things right.
Ok, I work for a car dealership and lately had an issue with a manager. I made a small mistake when I sold a used car to someone. I forgot to make sure there was an owner's manual in the glove compartment. It happens all the time and all we have to do is walk back to the parts department and they hand us one and we throw it in there. I just forgot to check, the customer got home and called about it. Of course we apologized and told her we would give her one. After the call my manager flipped out on me and said "that's ok, we'll just take it out of your paycheck". I told him that you cannot take money out of my paycheck without my authorization. His eyebrows raised and he said "ok, we'll see who's right". At the end of the day I was terminated. I then got a call 2 days later from another manager who was very nice to me. He asked me if I would like to work at their other location. I went down there and he was very nice to me, he said "don't worry about what happened over there, you didn't do anything wrong, we feel you will be a better fit here". So far he's right, I fit very well with the management team, and i have been praised by all of them so far. When I got my check (which was for my last week at the first location), it was $100 short. I then called the other location to ask them to fax over my "pay sheet", the pay sheet is basically a breakdown of your salary, as well as each of the individual deals you sold. The manager subtracted $100 from the deal with the missing manual. I even asked one of my managers to go into the computer and verify what the comission payout is, he said it was exactly $100 more than I got and he was very confused as to why I got what I did. So clearly this manager needed to prove a point to me, that he can play with my money. I kept calling to get my pay sheets and kept getting the run around, I finally had to call someone else to literally "sneak" it over to the fax machine and fax it to me. So clearly they were trying their hardest to hide the paper trail from me. I've been asking about the $100 and have been told to "forget about it" and "just move on". I am not willing to do that. So I have come to the conclusion that I may end up filing a wage claim with the department of labor, which will result in a lengthy and painful payroll audit (i've seen one before and their not pretty). I'm sure when this happens they are going to fire me, again. I'm assuming that when they do fire me that i'm automatically protected under the Conscientious employee protection act, or the "whistleblower act". The question is when they do fire me, how do I hire a lawyer to help me when I have no money as a result of my losing my job? Are there lawyers that take these types of cases on for free if they feel they have a solid case? Before I take actions is there anything I should do to build up evidence, like wear a tape recorder, gather documents, etc? I'm not sure what to do. I know most people may say "just let it go", but if I do that, then i'm basically sending them the message "it's ok to do this", and they will probably do it a lot more. Also I really need the money, I have bills to pay and believe it or not that $100 is making a difference in my financial situation. I just want to get some advice so I can thoroughly plan things out and do things right.
