This company lures you into working for them with promises of a sign on bonus after three months. The catch is you have to be buddy buddy with management to actually get the money or go to the department of labor and wages to get it, thats what i had to do. There are mixes feelings on if someone received the bonus or not. Some employees are happy that they got it and don't care about the rest, others are happy they got it and wonder if they will get ripped off on something else. Usually they do in the form of a shorted paycheck that won't get fixed for several months. I have seen multiple employees live paycheck to paycheck until they get a shorted paycheck. I know of two that missed there rent payments because of it. I also know of another who has child support taken out so when he received his check it was for less than fifty bucks. Since you have to drive to work at $4 a gallon, eat and buy expensive tools as they break $50 just doesn't last two weeks.
When you get a paycheck good luck cashing it, recently all check cashing locations will not accept Payroll checks for this company, banks are sitting on them for up to ten working days. (usually four days) and when they bounce you are liable for fees and charges for a bad check. You find this out because you put your payroll check in the bank, it always clears on the 3rd day on the 6th day you write a check for rent or house mortgage. Then on the 12th day the check arrives and then is cashed. Mean while you also use your debit card to buy gas to go to work, filling up your tank. You also buy a tool to replace the one that broke the week before.By day 15 you have a letter in the mail saying your account is over drawn and owe the bank all the money you spent plus well over $150 bucks in overdraft fee's from the listed instances. Vitel will not reimburse the damages unless you sue them in small claims. This luckily only costs around 30 bucks and you can sue for the $30 too. (i know this too).
After all of that its time to find a new job in a bad economy. You have two choices you can quite and file an unemployment claim for a bad work environment or you can job search while working 80 plus hours a week. Once you actually find a job its time to go. You give notice and leave as soon as the new start date for the new job it here. A month later you call Vitel again asking where the $800 dollars they owe you for your security deposit. This money is held by the company in case you lose a meter that works for 5 minutes, if it works at all. Luckily you get a different meter every day so sometimes you get one of the few that lasts for half the day. The management runs you around for a while playing phone tag, or soandso is on vacation until they see you won't give up. Then they say you can't have the money because you quite 3 days short of two weeks notice. So again you already know a considerable amount of the law by now to know this isn't legal either. You file another Department of labor and wages claim against them.in 4 weeks your check for $800 arrives in the mail. This check of course bounces (yup it sure did) But you new it would so you only incurred $37 dollars in bad check fees this time for the actual payroll check. You call your labor board rep and reopen the case. The next check comes in another 4 weeks and actually doesn't bounce. Now you go down to the court and file another lawsuit for the $37 dollars because at this point your fed up with them. You bill for the stamps to mail the labor board documents twice and the fee's to file with the court in addition to the $37.
The moral of the story is if it sounds wrong there is probably a law to protect you. Once you do something the labor board will protect you or get you unemployment money if Vitel retaliates. Employees, file for your lost money. Don't threaten them, just do it so your under the protection of the labor board.
0 comments