Trucker Fired For Refusing To Drive In Bad Weather Awarded $180k

That would definitely help stiffen the back up.

 

Good!! Its about time us drivers get some credit from somebody

 

Some reason I thought the title read
Tucker Fired For Refusing To Drive In Bad Weather
This would explain your new house @tucker

Tho this thread altready exists 12 days ago.
You do have the right NOT to drive in harsh weather!

 

Actually, in many respects, if he does go back, because the court has so ordered that they have to offer him his job back, he will probably be protected from such retaliation. If they try and pull a stunt on him to get rid of him, he will have good grounds to sue them again. Even if they do their best to make it look like he did something to deserve being fired, a jury trail is inclined to side with him regardless. If he is fired, the company already has a, bad faith, motivation established. Doesn't take a whole lot more in a court for a judge or jury to take his side in the ordeal. So, most likely, not only can he go back, he can go back and be a minor douche bag and they will probably let him get away with it. I've seen situations where such 'protected' employees were given lots of leeway for that exact reason. I haven't seen anyone, in my opinion, taken abusive advantage of it, but I have seen them get away with lots of little discretions that others might not have been able to repeatedly get away with such as being a little late to get into work or stretching lunch a tad or leaving a couple minutes (5 to 10 minute stuff, not an hour and the like). Stuff that many would only consider minor.

 

During my time in the Air Force I learned the term (memo for record) sounds innocent enough, but in the hands of a good manager can be one of the best tools known to rid someone like this. If said driver starts missing appointments etc and over time is warned, yes said driver can and in most circumstances be fired later on. In these days of protected classes and political correctness, this is how business work. Document document document. Yes, the driver won a legal case. This does not mean this driver can return to work and become a PITA. There is a huge difference between retaliation and doing this. Not only is there a fantastic chance the person will lose the 2nd case, but they might also very well get hit with legal fees.

 

To be honest, if I was this driver I would go back reason being if they fire him later it a possible lawsuit and violation, for retaliation. On flip side they may hurt his pay he would have to record everything all time prove they are giving him unfair conditions to show they were doing it on purpose, and even then it could be hard to prove simple issue being they say freight was slow how would one disprove that?

I would go back but then I would use them at best a stepping stone for more experience at best rather good pay.

 

Backbone as in “if I decide to shut down, the truck is shut down. I’m not calling and asking for permission because I have already made that decision.”

@Long FLD, I had a conversation with a lease driver yesterday. He’s complaining about his travel agent FORCING him to take a load that he didn’t want. It made no sense to me. He has the option of accepting the load or rejecting...how does she FORCE him to take a load?

“Well, she will call me and I will have to explain why I don’t want the load.”

Why do you feel the need to explain a decision?

 

I am glad that won that lawsuit. If my company threatened to fire me for not driving in bad weather, my words would be: "Do what you gotta do."

 

That's just it. A lease driver isn't really an owner. Just a glorified company driver. He turns that load down, he may as well go back to being a true company driver. The company's interests come before any lease operator's.

 

Bet he would get the worst loads they can find for him.
His vacation time off request form goes to the bottom of the pile, and when everyone else has holiday time off he gets whatever days are left over. His truck is inspected every night for a new scratch, or tire sidewalls that rubbed a curb.
No his life there will be a living hell!