Labor law question.

What a bizarre way to work as a tech.I couldnt imagine working anything but flat rate

 

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.

-Ronald Reagan

 

We've got an Obama impersonator doing Kia radio spots around here. Their slogan is .........."Take your fucking and keep on trucking"

OK, to be honest, there was alot of hypothetical static.

 

My thoughts :

1. Unless your co-worker filed a direct complaint with the Virginia DOL, I wouldn't count on them coming to "audit". DOL rarely has the staff and/or resources to pull off a random check as their hands are full of complaints from usually small businesses. If you want results, call, file a complaint, and wait for them to respond.

2. If the dealership is large enough that it has an HR Manager, albeit one that is apparently not up to date on payroll laws, I would certainly be concerned about the accounting practices.

3. I would request a meeting between your manager, the HR Manager, and you. Present your findings and ask that they look into the matter without being combative or making assumptions. Depending on their reply, give them the option to make things right for you and the team. If they refuse, then file a complaint with the DoL. Always give them the opportunity to make things right. In the end, even the worst offenders discover very quickly that squaring up with the employees is a much cheaper alternative to paying the DoL fine on top of the back pay. Also, that type of action also puts buisnesses on just about every other "random audit hitlist" out there for the next several years. Some agencies do have the staff to pull those off and they are a major PITA.

 

Back in the day when I was making a living with tools that sort of crap seemed common, everywhere you worked there was some sort of nutty commission plan or somesuch where you "almost" made some money. Soon as you did the plan would get changed or something and it would end. Bunch of BS, I don't miss it.

 

This is the part I find intriguing. I've read a lot of commissioned pay plans in dealerships on the sales side. The written consent is given by the employee in the actual pay plan they sign in their employee file. They basically can be charged back, against their commission, for errors they make that they were paid for. Kind of like getting back the money they shouldn't have had in the first place.

I'd be interested to see how it comes out.

 

Very interesting. I started here 8.5 years ago as an hourly guy. I was moved on to commission but never signed anything that I remember. I know for a fact when we changed to a team system nothing was signed.

It also raises te question that if one employee messes up, why can you debit 4 other guys. Also, the job was still completed, it was a paperwork issue, and frankly one that could have been rectified had the team leader been notified once a call back request was made before the actual charge back.

 

So you changed pay structures but were never giving anything in writing? That's not good for you.

 

I was given things in writing, but nothing to sign.

 

I have been back stubbed before for something one of my techs did on another team, something my team did not benefit from. Although, it was a while ago.

 

We had a tech here in Pa damage a sill trim plate while installing a seat. He got his paycheck and it was 200.00 short. In the list of itemized reasons it was short, there was another tech that was paid 0.5 hours to install the replacement piece. Talk about hot! The debited tech immediately called the Pa labor commission and was written a check by the dealership later that same day to cover the exact debited amount! It never happened again to any tech who damaged anything.

 

This is exactly why I am getting out of the car business. Just about anyone that runs a repair/body shop is a crook now a days and their main goal is to rip off their employees. Its almost a requirement to be an asshole when you accept the job. The thing I have learned is that once you bring up something like this, you are on the shit list and you will either have to quit or you will be fired eventually. But either way, I would not stand to be paid for any broken parts or mess ups for anyone else.

 

I wish I could afford to do the same.. Sadly it has turned me into an asshole. I am constantly giving my service writers or managers crap whenever I am asked to do something either for low labor or for free. Whenever I put up a fight I 9 times out of 10 get the labor I am asking for, it just sucks I need to do that to get it..

I had a talk with my shop manager this afternoon. He has been on vacation this whole time, otherwise I would have gone to him earlier. I waited till the end of the day, told him "I was going to talk to you this morning but I didn't want to shit all over your first day back at work". He asked for a copy of the law so he could read it, which I had. We talked about everything basically I have written here, and asked him what he thought I should do. I explained everyone is in fear of retaliation of the head guy because of the type of way he runs the business. I mentioned that if this was my team that I wouldn't of hesitated to go to the General Manager. He agreed, and said he was going to look into it and talk to our HR manager. It kind of made me feel like I should of had them (HR and shop managers) in the same room at the same time, but I guess we will see where it goes.

Another note, I found a way in our system to pull up any tech's flagged hours for every ticket that is searchable by dates. This allows me to pull up everyone's flagged hours on that team, and it can be compared to the hours being paid out on a daily basis on our excel spreadsheet that gets sent out at the end of everyday. I showed the tech this and explained that he could use this to send to the DOL to prove the shortages..

Other things that have come up.. a tech brought up that he was made to pay a $1,000 insurance deductible for body damages to a customer's car in the shop, and another tech mentioned he had to pay the same deductible for an accident in a company car on the way to a training class. I talked to my sister and she said those are the things the DOL will be looking for in an audit.

I think at this point I have said my peace with my shop manager. I am going to let it ride out unless the tech needs any other help. I have a pretty decent relationship with him, so hopefully it goes in the right direction..

Thanks for all of the input.

 

In a pretty rapid overview of this case, I'm starting to see that the management style of your employer flat out sucks. The instance (quoted above) - is this not why dealerships, and any company for that matter, have liability insurance? People are people and make mistakes - why are the employees being hit with the bills? Unless there was downright negligence or repeated occurences thats BS.

As far as the hourly rate instance goes... I'd follow the advice of Hyperdyne. If that does'nt change anything go to the Labor Board or find an attorney that specializes in labor relations. There's some dodgy stuff going on there...

Good luck mate.

 

Wait, so if a tech damages a vehicle he or she is not held responsible, i.e. to pay for said damages..?

Being in construction for, oh more than a few yrs. if anyone damaged anything, or built something that wasn't right, we paid. The exception being that if a tool was damaged.

 

That's kind of fucked up unless you're the business owner, then it makes sense. As a company we fix our mistakes, never on the employees dime. Too many or a big enough mess will end employment though.

 

According to VA laws that I have read and posted, what's going on in your situation is illegal.

Now having said that, we aren't talking about chronic offenders and carelessness. Accidents happen, people are human. If you break something on accident while making a company money, I don't think you should be on the hook. If you are costing a company $1000 every week messing up stuff, your obliviously a liability and it would make sense for your employment to be terminated.