So... I went to work for Emerald's Towing in Portland, OR. About a month ago. Five days into the job, my daughter (5 wks old at the time) was admitted to the hospital due to life threatening events. I informed the manager, Kevin, and I was allowed to go be with my daughter, who stayed a total of 3 days. The very next day the company told me I still needed to work, forcing me to leave my other 3 children with a babysitter while my wife was @ the hospital w / baby. During my daughters 3 days in the hospital it was never actually stated, but hinted at several times that if I didn't work, I would be fired.
I worked 8 days straight, 24 hrs a day on call before they gave me one single day off, and I only got 24 hrs exactly! I proceeded to work another week or so, and was given one night off, from 7pm to 7am. This company and the people who run it were sending me from around 6am to 11 or midnight towing cars, often times with no breaks!
After 4 weeks on the job, I was finally awarded 48 hours off! The working conditions are unfair, and illegal. Emerald's Towing does not follow any state or federal wage compensation laws or working laws. They do not allow uninterrupted time for meals, showers, sleep, etc. They pay 25 to 27% of all calls, after they deduct some sort of mileage (makes no sense), so the pay is not what they promise the employees.
They offer no benefits, all pay is under the table, with no taxes taken for state or federal. They literally gave me a hand written check for $439 for my first week of work (keep in mind, on call 24/7) they gave me no pay stub and no explaination of hours or pay. I patiently waited for my second check 2 weeks later, and in the meantime spent almost no time with my children, and when the paycheck arrived, once again, a hand written check, no check number printed on it, no pay stubs, no taxes, and was for $1097 for 13 days of being on call 24/7!
I asked several times what the pay periods were, and nobody was willing to answer my questions. My wife proceeded to call the Manager, Kevin, and just as soon as the conversation started, he was rude and ignorant to her. She asked him why the paycheck was less than it was supposed to be, and received no answers. She told him that she was not "okay" with no pay stub and no taxes, and he refused to finish the conversation. She tried to ask him to look into the matter, and he proceeded to call her a f*king b*ch, told her to "go to h*ll" and hung up on her.
Kevin called back about 5 minutes later, and when my wife answered the phone, he told her to tell me to bring the truck back to the yard, that I was FIRED! And hung up on her again, but not before she told him to "shove the truck up his *ss". I spoke with him briefly afterwards, where he changed the story several times, claiming that he wasn't firing me, and then he was, and back, flopping the story like a fish. My wife called the owner, Gene, and was very calm, collected, and respectful when she tried to explain that it was not okay to fire me for something she said, or for asking questions, that it was not only illegal, but morally wrong. He told her that he would fire me for any reason he wanted to, but that he'd never admit it was because of her!
I met the manager, Kevin, at the yard to turn in my truck, and we tried to go over my pay, but conveniently, the copies of the invoices I had done were nowhere to be found! This company is crooked, has a horrible reputation w / the public and in the "towing world", and does not follow any laws.
The trucks may be brand new and fancy, but they have no DOT numbers, and the drivers have NO medical cards, which is needed to cross state lines into Washington (which they do on a daily basis, I actually live in Washington). The drivers are not drug tested, they are not on police rotation, obviously for a reason. Emerald's towing doesn't offer any benefits, unfair and illegal working conditions, no personal time, not enough time to sleep/rest, they are cocky bastards, poor businessmen, the commission works out to be far less than minimum wage, they do not pay taxes, rumored that they use offroad diesel in the trucks, and they even made me wear uniforms that are 5 times too big with someone elses name on them! But they're worried about me shaving my face daily! LOL!
They require the drivers to wash the trucks daily, but do not give them time to do so, nor pay them for that, and they force the drivers to use thier personal cell phones for business and refuse to pay even a portion of the bill! They even made me buy my own batteries for the pager! Not to mention, the women from the dispatch company they use after hours are complete B*ch's!
I would never advise anybody to use this service, I personally, would rather push my truck home, or walk! They are unfair, a ripoff, and care nothing about thier employees, thier families, and thier sick babies! The owner and manager both are immoral, crooked, and should be allowed to do business.
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