This is the story of my stint as a Cab driver in San Diego during my mid 20's. The stories are real, although the names have been changed. The dates are to the best of my recollection. Any and all likenesses to certain individuals are purely coincidental.
June 27, 2013
And then the threats come...
So it seems that things here at this limo company - who we'll call "Guys in Grey Transportation" have took an unexpected turn. Yesterday, one of the partners, who'll we'll call "Sluggo" threatened to pursue me outside of work with some of his friends. Sluggo told me that now we have a "personal vendetta". I explained to him that this could be construed as a threat.
This situation arose out of the request that they pay me for all of my required back wages and overtime pay. They have been trying to smooth talk me for weeks on how everything they were doing was by the book and a commonly accepted practice within the industry. Well, apparently it's not so common since every single person that I have spoken with has instantly determined this to be illegal. What the company is attempting to do is clock my hours only when I am physically driving to or from a destination, along with some arbitrary additions here and there, instead of paying me for every hour that I have the limo - as I believe they should.
I explained to Sluggo that I would need to be paid for all of my hours according to my accounting methods. He began to talk in circles and blame me for continuing to work with the company even though I didn't agree with how they were paying me. By this rationale, it was ok for them to break the law as long as I didn't have any issues with it.
Things got tense when I further explained to Sluggo that they could pay me what I was asking, or just to be sure that no one gets short changed, we could have an attorney or the labor board investigate the case. Sluggo believed that this amounted to blackmail, and called it such. I'm not quite sure how they came to that assumption. Where I'm from, regulatory boards/commissions/agencies are there to protect the public. If there was any blackmail involved, Sluggo's actions would have more closely resembled such. I'll tell you one thing - if this does make it to an attorney or the labor board, there may not be many more posts to write about the company...
Until next time...
This situation arose out of the request that they pay me for all of my required back wages and overtime pay. They have been trying to smooth talk me for weeks on how everything they were doing was by the book and a commonly accepted practice within the industry. Well, apparently it's not so common since every single person that I have spoken with has instantly determined this to be illegal. What the company is attempting to do is clock my hours only when I am physically driving to or from a destination, along with some arbitrary additions here and there, instead of paying me for every hour that I have the limo - as I believe they should.
I explained to Sluggo that I would need to be paid for all of my hours according to my accounting methods. He began to talk in circles and blame me for continuing to work with the company even though I didn't agree with how they were paying me. By this rationale, it was ok for them to break the law as long as I didn't have any issues with it.
Things got tense when I further explained to Sluggo that they could pay me what I was asking, or just to be sure that no one gets short changed, we could have an attorney or the labor board investigate the case. Sluggo believed that this amounted to blackmail, and called it such. I'm not quite sure how they came to that assumption. Where I'm from, regulatory boards/commissions/agencies are there to protect the public. If there was any blackmail involved, Sluggo's actions would have more closely resembled such. I'll tell you one thing - if this does make it to an attorney or the labor board, there may not be many more posts to write about the company...
Until next time...
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