What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CALIFORNIA
Around a year ago I started my own business in the transportation area I started with one semi truck and kept growing until i was able to get 5 trucks, I have 4 employees since I drive 1 of the trucks, recently 1 of the trucks caught fire on one of the trips and was a total loss including the load we had on it, so now I am short a truck for 1 of my drivers, not wanting to fire my driver I told him to dont worry that he could keep working on the truck I was driving and he refused saying that he rather go to Mexico for a couple of weeks and see what happens when he came back. I should probably mention this driver has always been very difficult to work with, I should probably had taken his refusal as a work abandonment but taking this just as a conversation between me and him no witnesses or anything documented I let it slip, now he came back from Mexico and I let him work on the truck I was driving the issue now is that he has to unload tomorrow and I told him there is a load ready to pick up on Wednesday and he refused to do it he wont unload tomorrow and he refused to show up to work on Wednesday, I told him that this time if he didnt want to show up for work he would be terminated I typed a letter stating what was being discussed and where it stated he was refusing to show up for work something like a resignation letter but he didnt want to sign it saying he was not resigning that he just didnt want to work that day, I told him that I needed him to show to work and if he refuses he is abandoning his job his answer was a straight out no....My question is What can I do? or What is the next step I should take? because of this Im going to have to hire another driver to unload the load for tomorrow and go load the next load on Wednesday since Its not possible for me to do it since I have a lot of backed up office work to do because of the truck that got burned and the passed loads I really need help I dont want to do the wrong thing but I cant be depending on an unreliable employee that will only work when he wants to.
Around a year ago I started my own business in the transportation area I started with one semi truck and kept growing until i was able to get 5 trucks, I have 4 employees since I drive 1 of the trucks, recently 1 of the trucks caught fire on one of the trips and was a total loss including the load we had on it, so now I am short a truck for 1 of my drivers, not wanting to fire my driver I told him to dont worry that he could keep working on the truck I was driving and he refused saying that he rather go to Mexico for a couple of weeks and see what happens when he came back. I should probably mention this driver has always been very difficult to work with, I should probably had taken his refusal as a work abandonment but taking this just as a conversation between me and him no witnesses or anything documented I let it slip, now he came back from Mexico and I let him work on the truck I was driving the issue now is that he has to unload tomorrow and I told him there is a load ready to pick up on Wednesday and he refused to do it he wont unload tomorrow and he refused to show up to work on Wednesday, I told him that this time if he didnt want to show up for work he would be terminated I typed a letter stating what was being discussed and where it stated he was refusing to show up for work something like a resignation letter but he didnt want to sign it saying he was not resigning that he just didnt want to work that day, I told him that I needed him to show to work and if he refuses he is abandoning his job his answer was a straight out no....My question is What can I do? or What is the next step I should take? because of this Im going to have to hire another driver to unload the load for tomorrow and go load the next load on Wednesday since Its not possible for me to do it since I have a lot of backed up office work to do because of the truck that got burned and the passed loads I really need help I dont want to do the wrong thing but I cant be depending on an unreliable employee that will only work when he wants to.