My husband was told that he needed surgery. He talked to his boss about the date of the surgery to make sure the time off would be ok. He asked his boss for the 100th time how much vacation time he had saved up (it did not appear on his check stub) and he said he didn't know, he would take care of him. My husband asked for FMLA paperwork (He might not have used those exact words) and his boss told him they didn't have any paperwork for him to file.
My husband had his surgery and I went to pick up his check on Friday night like I always do and there wasn't any check. My husband called his boss on his cell phone (this is a 24-7-365 business) to ask him where his check was and his boss started screaming at him that he had no right to call him at home on a Friday night for his paycheck. He told him that if he had him in front of him he'd beat the s--- out of him for calling him at this place and time for his money. Despite having been threatened with physical violence my husband attempted to get these issues resolved. He called and called. Finally three weeks later there was a check. The check had 2 deductions from his pay that are disputable deductions.
1. The company had had a meeting 3 months prior at which time the management made changs in operating policies and procedures for the staff and told them that they all had a clean slate and that assuming they followed the new polocies and procedures, all would be forgotten. My husband is a truck driver and the month before that meeting he had been in Cambridge making a delivery to BU (technically in Boston). My husband got pulled over for a vehicle violation that was the companies responsibility and while he was getting ticketed for that the officer also added a charge to the ticket for being in Cambridge at a time he wasn't supposed to be unless he was making a local delivery. My husband was within a mile of his delivery location; but the Cambridge officer refused to recognize a delivery in Boston (which was just on the other side of the Charles River)as local to Cambridge. He fined him $500. The boss took the ticket from my husband in December and never said another word. All of a sudden, out of the vacation paycheck in April he deduct the $500. So much for a clean slate in January.
2. My husband had had his surgery on a Thursday. That week when they paid him for the work that he did on Mon-Wed they paid him 16 hours of vacation for Thursday and Friday. He had been told when he was negotiating to get his vacation pay in those first three weeks after his surgery that they were going to take those two days back and just pay him full weeks from now on. They had paid 16 hours, they deducted 19 with no explanation from the check.
Despite their promises to pay him weekly after that they never paid him another dime. They refused to answer the phone when he called (they have caller ID) and they never returned any messages he left. They clearly had no intentions of paying the vacation time.
My husband was also unable to resolve his issues of violence with his boss over the phone. When he was calling and calling to negotiate that check my husband never actually talked to the boss he wouldn't get on the phone then either- he had his employees talk to him. After having been told that "if I had you in front of me....", my husband was not comfortable physcially going down to work without having the opportunity to talk to the boss evaluate if he would be safe if he actually put himself in front of the boss. Would you put yourself in front of someone that had threatened you and then in essence refused to talk to you? He had reason to assume he would not be physically safe.
Weeks went by and my husband could not get anyone on the phone to discuss his vacation pay nor his return to work. He decided he was apaprently not employed there anymore as they weren't paying him and he found another job. He worked for 6 weeks and then was told they did not have enought work for him. My husband looked for another job. He thought he had a couple of jobs over months time and each one fell through.
Finally he went to unemployment. We feel that he had just cause to quit; but, regardless he had been told from his last job that they didn't have enough work so it seemed to be a mute point.
Unemployment has denied my husbands claim. The initial opportunity that my husband had to discuss this with them was a phone meeting with a claims reviewer. This reviewer did not speak English as a first langauage and could not understand my husband, he could not understand her, and my husband didn't have a fair initial hearing; because, he didn't get a chance to discuss half of his concerns due to the language barrier.
In the their denial they said that; because, this employee will be paying most of the bill for his unemployemnt thay are going to let them have a voice. Their own rules state that my husband has been seperated from that job to long for this job to be considered the primary employer. Regardless that job is claiming that he never tried to get his job back. They wouldn't answer the phone when he called, they wouldn't return his messages, and they had created a hostile environment that prohibited him from going down in person. How was he supposed to discuss going back to work with them?
My question is how do we defend that my husband had just cause to quit?
1. How can we prove a hostile environment when this situation was created on a telephone call on a land line? I can't prove that they talked or that my husband called and called to try to resolve this.
My husband worked there for 3 years from 1999-2002 and then again from 2003-2009. They never gave him a new employee handbook when he went back the second time; so, I do not have a record of the benefits that he was promised when he was hired in writing available to bring to the hearing. Do I have to go back over a every paycheck from 2003-2009 to prove he had almost 8 weeks of vacation pay coming to him? Should I notify the DOL about the time not paid? Can you please help us?
Thank you for taking the time to read this.I am sorry this is so long.
Denise Raskett (on behalf of Jeffrey Raskett)
15 Wigwam Rd
North Brookfield, MA 01535
505-867-3230
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