• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Two agencies I worked for are refusing to pay me, and government office telling them it's okay.

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

Status
Not open for further replies.

sdaker

Active Member
I have ZERO doubt that falsifying your time sheet at one location is going to make it difficult for you to prove your case that they are somehow the ones who can't be trusted.
I did what they told me to do. The agency that handled this particular location was way more disorganized than the other one, where no such thing took place. It gets more complicated. At this location, I showed up twice and was sent home because they reached the capacity of people that they needed, and didn't email or call me ahead of time to tell me not to come before I got there. I argued with them about how they should've told me before I drove out there, and that driving took two hours to get there and two hours to get back home. The sign-in ladies both told me that I could add a few extra hours to my online timesheet for those days, their exact words were "as a courtesy" for having to drive out there and be sent home. They didn't let me put those hours on the physical sheet though, but they insisted that I could do it on the online one. The payroll lady said that one of those ladies was working there for 20 years and would never tell me to "falsify documents", but she and the younger lady working with her both did.

The other location was way more organized, they had two sign-in sheets, one at the entrance handled by a guard, and one in the room where we all sat and waited to be called upon. My physical and online timesheets for that location match each other, but they removed an entire week that I worked and won't pay me for it, and I have video evidence that proves I was there on the graveyard shift day that they claim I wasn't there on.
 


quincy

Senior Member
I think you are going to find you are not paid for the hours you actually worked if you are known to have falsified other hours.

I don’t know how you can locate any of the workers.
 

sdaker

Active Member
I think you are going to find you are not paid for the hours you actually worked if you are known to have falsified other hours.

I don’t know how you can locate any of the workers.
I did what I was told. If what I was told to do was going to result in something like this, I wouldn't have done it. The word of the agencies is not better than mine. Not being paid for the hours that I worked is an unfair punishment for doing what I was told.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I did what I was told. If what I was told to do was going to result in something like this, I wouldn't have done it. The word of the agencies is not better than mine. Not being paid for the hours that I worked is an unfair punishment for doing what I was told.
I agree. It is unfair.

File a wage complaint.

Good luck.
 

Just Blue

Senior Member
I did what I was told. If what I was told to do was going to result in something like this, I wouldn't have done it. The word of the agencies is not better than mine. Not being paid for the hours that I worked is an unfair punishment for doing what I was told.
How old are you? I ask because the ^above^ posting "sounds" like a 12 year old whining after Mom punished him for misbehaving badly. "But Mooommm!! Johnny told me to set fire to Mrs McGillicutty's cat tail!!!"
 

quincy

Senior Member
You were caught smoking a joint (regardless of who else smoked too), you falsified your time sheet (regardless of someone telling you to fill in hours), you have been banned from the property (for a reason that remains to me unclear), and you apparently have frightened at least one employee with threats (whether you intended to threaten anyone or not).

If you were not paid for hours that you legitimately worked (e.g., were scheduled to work) and you want to file a claim to see if you can get this owed amount, file a claim. There is not much else you can do.

I am afraid any decision made will not be in your favor but I suppose it is worth the time and effort to file. Or you can write this all off as a bad and costly experience and move on.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck.
 

sdaker

Active Member
You were caught smoking a joint (regardless of who else smoked too), you falsified your time sheet (regardless of someone telling you to fill in hours), you have been banned from the property (for a reason that remains to me unclear), and you apparently have frightened at least one employee with threats (whether you intended to threaten anyone or not).

If you were not paid for hours that you legitimately worked (e.g., were scheduled to work) and you want to file a claim to see if you can get this owed amount, file a claim. There is not much else you can do.

I am afraid any decision made will not be in your favor but I suppose it is worth the time and effort to file. Or you can write this all off as a bad and costly experience and move on.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you luck.
What? I didn't smoke any joint. I didn't use any drugs period. Where did you read that? You misread what I wrote earlier. I saw a flower on the floor and lit it with my lighter. It wasn't a cannabis flower, it was just a regular dried flower. You misunderstood me.
 
Last edited:

sdaker

Active Member
How old are you? I ask because the ^above^ posting "sounds" like a 12 year old whining after Mom punished him for misbehaving badly. "But Mooommm!! Johnny told me to set fire to Mrs McGillicutty's cat tail!!!"
Thanks, I don't care what you think. How old are you? My age is none of your business. When a manager tells a worker to do something, and that worker isn't aware that it's the wrong thing to do, you don't blame the worker who didn't know any better, you blame the manager who did know better and told them to do the wrong thing. If I knew that writing extra hours would cause me any trouble, I wouldn't have done it. I was told that I should do it, and so were many others. Now cut out the arrogance, because it will lead to your downfall someday, mr. psuedo-intellectual.
 
Last edited:

quincy

Senior Member
What? I didn't smoke any joint. I didn't use any drugs period. Where did you read that? You misread what I wrote earlier. I saw a flower on the floor and lit it with my lighter. It wasn't a cannabis flower, it was just a regular dried flower. You misunderstood me.
I am sorry for misunderstanding what you wrote.
 

sdaker

Active Member
I am sorry for misunderstanding what you wrote.
They can construe my inquiring about why I wasn't paid as a threat if they want to, but I didn't threaten anybody. This is just their way of intimidating me with threats of prosecution, so that they don't have to pay me what I'm owed. Since when is asking for your money considered a threat?
 

sdaker

Active Member
I am sorry for misunderstanding what you wrote.
Also, those county employees are public service agents. They work for the public. I contacted the hr lady's boss so that I could explain the situation to her, there's nothing wrong with doing that. I contacted her again because the county wasn't paying me. It's her job to take those inquiries, since she manages the whole thing.
 

quincy

Senior Member
... Why I was banned from the other location:

This location was in an outdoor area surrounded by concrete. There were a few guys standing across from me, smoking weed onsite in front of everyone and not hiding it at all. I had to take a drug test just to get hired, along with a background check, but these guys were smoking pot and creating large clouds (enhanced by the foggy weather) out in the open where everyone could see them. I saw one of them throw away a roach into the trash can while it was still lit.

I and a few other workers were at that moment assigned to go to one of the voting sites, so we had to wait in line for over an hour for things to get ready, and we had nothing to do but watch some coworkers get high in the distance. While standing in line, I saw a dried wilted flower on the floor, I picked it up, lit it with my lighter, and got a cheap thrill out of it, as did a few ladies who were waiting in line next to me who told me how cool it looked. Out of complete nowhere comes this angry middle aged female who started shouting at me in front of everybody, demanding that I leave the premises or she would bring the police. I told her that there were some guys smoking weed right across from where she was yelling at me, but she didn't care. I asked for her name and she showed me her LA County badge. Later on I found out that she was the HR manager for the LA County election jobs. After I left, I called the county office, and asked to speak with whomever was in charge of her. I got the phone number of her boss, but her boss's secretary wouldn't let me speak to her boss. Instead she gave me the number of some other guy who was onsite from where I just got banned, and said that he was one level above the HR lady, but one level below her boss whom I was trying to speak with. After speaking to that guy, it was clear to me that he was going to take the HR lady's side, and didn't care that she humiliated me in front of a whole bunch of other people, and fired me for doing less than what some other guys were doing. I emailed her boss, and her boss at first gave me this response
"Thx u

Yesterday I ask (name of the onsite guy) to contact you".

Her response had bad grammar, as bad as what you would expect to see in a text message. I emailed her back and wrote
"I talked to him yesterday, and I mentioned that to you in my email. Please read the email when you get a chance. Thank you."

I asked her to please read my first email, because it didn't seem like she read it at all. She responded with more poor grammar:
"I reread the email. I understand that you regret your actions, but the County has a zero tolerance policy for your actions. We will look further into the actions of others you mentioned.

Lessons learned. You have the right attitude and have been honest with us. I am sure you will continue to find work. Stick to those values you expressed with us. Good luck."

A few days after both assignments had ended (the one I got banned from and the one with the election overnight graveyard shift), I found out that I wasn't going to be paid for the overtime that I did at the location that I was banned from. I contacted the HR lady's boss again and told her that my agencies weren't paying me, and this time she told me off on the phone, threatened me with a restraining order, and said that I had to deal with the agency in regards to receiving payment, and to not contact her again or she would call the police. She told me that I had a restraining order placed on me the day I was banned anyway, which I wasn't aware of at all. Then later on, the other agency decided they didn't want to pay me for the overtime hours I worked either, in fact they don't want to pay me at all. They removed an entire week from my time sheet, and I suspect that the banning incident is the reason why both of these agencies are refusing to pay me and why they and the county are threatening me with legal action just for inquiring about my money.
They can construe my inquiring about why I wasn't paid as a threat if they want to, but I didn't threaten anybody. This is just their way of intimidating me with threats of prosecution, so that they don't have to pay me what I'm owed. Since when is asking for your money considered a threat?
I think you might want to find legal assistance in your area to help you with a wage claim, if filing a claim is what you intend to do.

Good luck.
 

sdaker

Active Member
I think you might want to find legal assistance in your area to help you with a wage claim, if filing a claim is what you intend to do.

Good luck.
I've written 6 pages so far. I don't have money for a legal assistant, and no lawyer is willing to take on a case like this, unless it concerns an amount exceeding $5,000, which it doesn't.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I've written 6 pages so far. I don't have money for a legal assistant, and no lawyer is willing to take on a case like this, unless it concerns an amount exceeding $5,000, which it doesn't.
I would leave out all extraneous information and stick only to facts. You worked X number of hours on day 1, 2, 3, and 4 and you weren’t paid for hours on days 3 and 4.

Good luck.
 

sdaker

Active Member
I would leave out all extraneous information and stick only to facts. You worked X number of hours on day 1, 2, 3, and 4 and you weren’t paid for hours on days 3 and 4.

Good luck.
I was thinking that I should write the whole story out. There's a lot of details that they may bring up in their defense, and I just wanted to cover every possible base.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top