for North Carolina
theres definitely gaps so please ask questions as you have them
also totally sorry for WORDS
anyway, Company starts enforcing policy that employees will not be paid for traveling after hours as a passenger according according to federal law
Employee A is model worker, if he may say so, almost perfect work reviews
Employee B is problem worker, repeat offender of policy and someone Employee A has complained about numerous times
both paid hourly, different rates for driving and working
Employee A and B are given orders to leave Thursday for Columbia, SC (3-3.5 hrs away, not including lunch/bathroom/gas stops). The exact words in the email are "Employee A, You’re leaving out Thurs." Not a specific time to be there or start, not even anything to indicate to get there through all possible obstacles. The normal workday is 8-5 just like most office jobs.
Employee A gets to office at 7:45am and starts routine packing of company vehicle. Employee B gets there around 9am as usual. Work involves packing equipment and towing a boat on a trailer. Boat is already on trailer and several employees including brand new supervisor and fleet manager help in making sure Boat/Trailer/Truck is ready to go including looking over Boat/Trailer by all.
We (ok that A, B **** is annoying even me) leave at 11am after all preparations are made. An hour into drive Boat falls off trailer off of I-40 and although no other cars are involved there is a small hole in Boat that now needs repair. Very small hole. I call the fleet manager and and say the equipment they gave me won't work to safely tow. Told to come back to office.
Arrive at office back at 1pm. New supervisor says we will have to wait till morning to leave again while Boat is fixed but to start driving again at 7am the next day. Fleet manager says lets see if we can't fix it now and see if they can't be on their way so we fill out an incident report and wait. Boat gets fixed and we leave again at 3pm with stronger equipment holding boat.
If you're still reading this is where it gets tricky...Now even under normal circumstances, we would stop driving/work at 5pm (because passenger won't get paid anymore and this is the same procedure we've followed for 8 months) so this 3.5 hr trip to Columbia would not be completed and we would still stop and get a hotel. But as it happened I got lost (yeah i know, 40 to 95, and done but I somehow got on 64 the long way). So little progress was made tripwise and we got a hotel an hour and some away (but still 3 hrs from Columbia). Now remember it wouldn't have been completed anyway under old supervisors and it COULD have been completed and then some if Boat hadn't fallen off trailer which Fleet manager himself helped prepare.
Meanwhile, Employee B gets the keys to the truck after we get to the hotel to get his stuff out and without asking or even notifying me, his direct supervisor, takes it on a joyride to meet a girl at Outback 1.5hr away all night. Not only is this against company policy but he's been written up for it several several times and I've made other complaints about his not following policy/my orders in the past and I told new supervisor just two days ago I wished to switch partners because of it.
So this morning we start at 8am and continue our trip as normal, stop 15 min for Breakfast, and get about 45 away when I'm told come back around immediately and new supervisor fires me. The reasons are 1) direct insubordination for not making it to Columbia by Thursday night and 2) the actions of Employee B because he and the truck are my responsibility even if I wasn't aware it happened
now me getting lost aside and the fact that a hotel would have been charged anyway in Columbia that night, i'm wondering if there aren't some flaws in my termination.
1) is it legal to force employees to travel as a passenger, even if it means not getting paid, after hours, in order to get to the job site where the initial directive was simply ""Employee A, You’re leaving out Thurs." even after the precedent for the last 8 months has been to stop at 5pm no matter what?
2) is it legal to fire someone for not doing so? I realize they gave another reason which really had nothing to do with me which is bull**** but NC supports bull**** firings in general being "at-will". I'm just wondering if the first reason is enough to hold merit for a finding in my favor.
Also its important that they explained I'm not getting fired because I got lost, it's because I got lost and then didn't continue all the way to Columbia still. And they explicitly stated that employees will just have to "switch off not getting paid to even it out".
ok thats enough for now, help/ask/flame on!
theres definitely gaps so please ask questions as you have them
also totally sorry for WORDS
anyway, Company starts enforcing policy that employees will not be paid for traveling after hours as a passenger according according to federal law
Employee A is model worker, if he may say so, almost perfect work reviews
Employee B is problem worker, repeat offender of policy and someone Employee A has complained about numerous times
both paid hourly, different rates for driving and working
Employee A and B are given orders to leave Thursday for Columbia, SC (3-3.5 hrs away, not including lunch/bathroom/gas stops). The exact words in the email are "Employee A, You’re leaving out Thurs." Not a specific time to be there or start, not even anything to indicate to get there through all possible obstacles. The normal workday is 8-5 just like most office jobs.
Employee A gets to office at 7:45am and starts routine packing of company vehicle. Employee B gets there around 9am as usual. Work involves packing equipment and towing a boat on a trailer. Boat is already on trailer and several employees including brand new supervisor and fleet manager help in making sure Boat/Trailer/Truck is ready to go including looking over Boat/Trailer by all.
We (ok that A, B **** is annoying even me) leave at 11am after all preparations are made. An hour into drive Boat falls off trailer off of I-40 and although no other cars are involved there is a small hole in Boat that now needs repair. Very small hole. I call the fleet manager and and say the equipment they gave me won't work to safely tow. Told to come back to office.
Arrive at office back at 1pm. New supervisor says we will have to wait till morning to leave again while Boat is fixed but to start driving again at 7am the next day. Fleet manager says lets see if we can't fix it now and see if they can't be on their way so we fill out an incident report and wait. Boat gets fixed and we leave again at 3pm with stronger equipment holding boat.
If you're still reading this is where it gets tricky...Now even under normal circumstances, we would stop driving/work at 5pm (because passenger won't get paid anymore and this is the same procedure we've followed for 8 months) so this 3.5 hr trip to Columbia would not be completed and we would still stop and get a hotel. But as it happened I got lost (yeah i know, 40 to 95, and done but I somehow got on 64 the long way). So little progress was made tripwise and we got a hotel an hour and some away (but still 3 hrs from Columbia). Now remember it wouldn't have been completed anyway under old supervisors and it COULD have been completed and then some if Boat hadn't fallen off trailer which Fleet manager himself helped prepare.
Meanwhile, Employee B gets the keys to the truck after we get to the hotel to get his stuff out and without asking or even notifying me, his direct supervisor, takes it on a joyride to meet a girl at Outback 1.5hr away all night. Not only is this against company policy but he's been written up for it several several times and I've made other complaints about his not following policy/my orders in the past and I told new supervisor just two days ago I wished to switch partners because of it.
So this morning we start at 8am and continue our trip as normal, stop 15 min for Breakfast, and get about 45 away when I'm told come back around immediately and new supervisor fires me. The reasons are 1) direct insubordination for not making it to Columbia by Thursday night and 2) the actions of Employee B because he and the truck are my responsibility even if I wasn't aware it happened
now me getting lost aside and the fact that a hotel would have been charged anyway in Columbia that night, i'm wondering if there aren't some flaws in my termination.
1) is it legal to force employees to travel as a passenger, even if it means not getting paid, after hours, in order to get to the job site where the initial directive was simply ""Employee A, You’re leaving out Thurs." even after the precedent for the last 8 months has been to stop at 5pm no matter what?
2) is it legal to fire someone for not doing so? I realize they gave another reason which really had nothing to do with me which is bull**** but NC supports bull**** firings in general being "at-will". I'm just wondering if the first reason is enough to hold merit for a finding in my favor.
Also its important that they explained I'm not getting fired because I got lost, it's because I got lost and then didn't continue all the way to Columbia still. And they explicitly stated that employees will just have to "switch off not getting paid to even it out".
ok thats enough for now, help/ask/flame on!
