[Spunger]

Hey guys I need some serious help.

My work situation is pathetic I dunno how to even explain it. I have felt shafted at my place of employement for a long time now but it's finally hit the mark where I don't think I can deal with it anymore.

I gave my boss a letter telling him I wanted a raise and felt lots of things were wrong in our shop. I work on computers and I am head PC technican. He does all Macintosh/Printer repair. There is only him, me, and a secretary.

I have not been paid since Febuary of 2004. It's now June, so I am behind in 8 pay periods. I gave him this letter after he had talked to me about changing things around and I felt like that was the last straw. He is always trying to pay me as little as possible while making him more money. I figured fine I'll let it go for a week or so because I understood and didn't press the issue. Well he seems to either be out of the office, or gets a magical phone call when trying to talk to him. At this point I understand to myself that I am working for free. I am making him free money and getting nothing paid for it. I fear if I quit I won't see any backpay at all. I love my job but I can't work with him any longer as he has personal issues that interfere with work.

So tonight I tried talking to him. It didn't go anywhere because he clearly didn't want to hear how I felt but rather would tell me he was still thinking about it. I left tonight with no check in my hand. I have about had it with him and his business.

I have been told many things, all of which are leading to going to the labor board and quitting. I don't think there is a valid excuse he could come up with as to why he doesn't pay his employee's on time. I know in my case I have him in by the balls. In alot of ways the way I feel is like he needs to know what he is doing is wrong. Sure when I tell him that I need all my checks now and if I don't have each one by 5 p.m Monday then I am going to the labor board he'll write each one of them, probably still shafting me in the process, and I'll have to give him my 2 weeks notice as I don't want to be in this position any longer.

My question is how or what can I do as an employee? It feels like slave labor. I am not given breaks, not given a lunch where I can leave. I am stuck there 100% of the time. To boot I don't even get paid on time. I don't think I have ever gotten paid on time working for him. I am young and never have had to stand up to a boss or owner and be able to put them in their place. I'd like to burry his arse if I couldn't to prove that you can't do what you are doing to people.

So I am wondering from other monkeys, who have worked a lot longer than I have and may have even been put in my situation what to do?

Any help would be greatly appricated!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Tenchiro]

Go to the attorney general also, and in the mean time until you quit do your damnedest to ruin his business.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Tell him you want your money owed and you want breaks. I believe he has to give you a min of a 10 min morning break and a 30min lunch in a 8 hour day. Tell him this or you'll go to the labor union.

 

[arsenic]

gezus. i think you're entitled to a lunch by law. certainly by common decency. go to some sort of labor board, get your cash then walk out. that's insane.

 

[eric strt6]

he is in violation of many State and Federal Labor Laws.

Get your but down to the EDD and file a claim. They will go after him for back pay, interest, and penalties. Do not let your so called boss walk all over you.

take all pay stubs, documentation of hours worked [time cards] and any written correspondence between the two of you on this matter when you go into file.

 

[Tenchiro]

Also make sure every e-mail you send him regarding this, cc: a personal account.

 

[Crash_Tested]

you need to speek to a lawyer and get a new job now.

 

[BurlyShirley]

He didnt by chance take your stapler too, did he?

 

[MMike]

He didnt by chance take your stapler too, did he?

 

[COmtbiker12]

*slowly runs off while people marvel at the burning building*

 

[Big E]

all i got to say is go out with a bang if hes gonna dick you like that. just go straight up crazy on his ass!

 

[bushwacker]

OMG, if you are in the USA somewhere, call the Department of Labor, and the DA in your town and tell them you have been working for 4 months without pay.

You want even more action, call the IRS, if you aren't getting paid, then he isn't paying his taxes that he is required either. The IRS doesn't like intentional delinquents. You'll be off the hook for anything (like fines, normal taxes will still be due) too since you were the whisteblower, plus sometimes you even get a cut of what they end up fining them.

If he's making you skip breaks, they will probably make him pay back-pay for them too. A long time ago at the company I work for, they were doing an inspection, and one of the ladies said offhand that she just sat and ate lunch at her desk everyday while working, and didn't actually take a 30 minute break, she ended up getting back paid like 4 years of 30 minute lunches!

good luck man

 

[Spunger]

Wow I wish the email system worked so I could see all these responses!

I work anywhere between 70-75hrs every 2 weeks. I work like 10 to 5:30 usually. I know I atleast qualify for breaks but never have really had them. At the one only other job I have worked at come break time it was break time. We didn't do squat for 10 or 15 minutes. Even lunch was a complete break. Lunch time for me at my current work is that, eating at my desk. I never can just leave for 30 minutes as he wants someone in the shop at all times and I am the only one in the shop. I am 22, way too friggen young to be stressed out about not having a lunch break or break to just go take a walk around the block or something.

The breaks and such are one thing, the time cards and pay is the other. Basicly this is what happened and this isn't the first time. But for example let's use this as the primary story. Begining of Feb 2004 I wrote a letter asking for a raise and telling him somethings are wrong in the shop. He told me to hold onto my time cards until he figured something out. SO I held onto them. He never asked to have any to pay me or asked anything about it. I have had to bring it up 3 times over the last 4 months and just today after work he decided we needed to talk. Well his talk turned into another way to shaft me, so I sorta got pissed and left. I then started thinking how bad it is, the entire situation and I know I need another job. This is just wrong in all aspects. I never have gotten pay stubs with each paycheck. He ends up writting the checks from his checkbook and that's it. I just get a check. I have filed every year for income tax though. Even then the W2 forms aren't given to me when they are suspose to be. Last year was the first out of 4 years where I had gotten a pay stub, and it was all my year's paystubs so I could go over my taxes (meaning he printed all of them for my records at the end of the year, what good that does).

He is just a bad business owner. He see's our field (computer repair) as it doesn't seem to be a very skilled job. Like any monkey can do it. That's true to some point, but it also takes a level of customer service and skill to do the job. When we talk I don't feel like I ever get anything accomplished. I have worked full time for the last 4 years, have had no vacation, maybe miss 4-7 days a year which I am magicly "sick" which is my diagnosis of being too stressed out and it causes me to use the bathroom like 10 times a day, plus the stress of him not being there. At this point I can't really be paid any lower than I am even starting at a job I know nothing about, and can atleast hope to god that it is ran the correct way so I don't have to go through this again.

Tomorrow morning I am going to make copies of the time cards and comission sheets that I have and come Monday I am going to tell him I need every single check that is due. I'm not going to tell him I am going to the labor board afterwords because I have a fear I'll never see my pay as it is. I figured atleast once I have my pay I can deposit it, and then take him to the labor board for not giving pay stubs, breaks, and not paying me on time. I just don't want to say anything about the labor board to him as I know it'll make him not want to pay me or he simply won't pay me. I still feel though it is unfair of what he is doing. Not just to be but to every employee that he has had in the last 4 years.

Now I just gotta find the local labor board branch, get a copy of my letter, and a copy of my last time cards and take them in sometime during a day when i can manage to get off or come in late. I know by taking my claim to the labor board I am basicly going to be fired in his eyes but I imagine it will burry his business. I guess he should have thought about this before deciding to hire people. It's funny because all he'll hire is Collage age kids. No adult is dumb enough to work for him.

I'll keep in touch on this one. Thanks for the encouragement guys. My girlfriends mom works in a HR enviorment for her company and deals with paychecks and all that stuff, and she reams me a new one each time she hears something about me not getting paid. If confronted by my boss I could always say people aren't stupid and know how it is here, someone had to turn you in and leave it at that. It's hard preparing to know you will be jobless pretty much instantly after reporting him. I bet I'd have to take a whole day off work just to file the stuff with the Labor board. It won't look obvious that I missed a day or anything but something has to be done. It just makes me nervous thinking about it as I've never had to do something to this extreme with an employer.

 

[binary visions]

He didnt by chance take your stapler too, did he?

That was the first thing I thought before I even opened the thread