Pushy Dispatcher threatens to fine me $600 is it legal?

Yes there seems to be A LOT of misinformation in this thread, all from people who have ZERO direct experience with something like this. I am the only employee I know at my old company who threatened a full blown legal battle if they so much as took a PENNY from my paycheck. I don't care about rocking the boat. I'll tip the SOB on its back if I have to. They knew I was serious when I called them and asked them who their agent of record is. Google it to find out why.

People actually believe "It depends on what the contract says." Um, NO IT DOESN'T. No contract can make it legal to illegally steal money from someone. But I tried to explain that.

Remember, you can lead a horse to knowledge but you can't make him think.

 

THAT DOESN'T MATTER. NO CONTRACT CAN MAKE ILLEGAL ACTIVITY LEGAL. PERIOD.

Being 1099 is TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to this. Just like if I hired an AC guy to fix my AC, I can't "fine" him if he makes ruts in my yard driving away. I have NO right to do that, even though I contracted him out to do work for me. I can't withhold money that I previously agreed to pay him. Same as a 1099 guy. Can't do that. If I want to take his money I have to go through the courts.

 

Yes as they say in business "do your due diligence" and always always read the fine print, or at least get some other legal people to do it for you before signing on the dotted line.

 

That’s not a good example. First you hire someone to work on your a/c, you are entering into a service contract with an outcome to fix your a/c. He isn’t your “contractor” to provide you anything outside of that specific consumer service.

the relationship between a independent contractor to provide you an ongoing service to fill in a gap to create revenue is such one that the contract defines the relationship and the scope of the work to be done, how it is to be done and how it is paid. A 1099 independent contractor can have revenue adjusted if need be if they do not meet the needs of the engaging party.

The employment contract is a legal document, many of them are in the form (properly) as a personal service contract, and it provide a means to hold back bonuses or cause an employee pay to be taken for a company loss when that loss is part of a performance loss. The key here is this is a profession, it is regulated and not something that anyone walking off the street can be hired to do.

 

You most certainly can write in fines for service failures in a contract. Now, who decides who is at fault for the service failure? If I’m signing that I would want to be clear who is adjudicating it.

Am I the only one that picked up on the fact that they are using an out of country dispatch service? If you work for a company that uses one of these you need to be looking for new employment. I loath dispatch services.

 

I’m guessing you’ve never seen any of the contracts that carriers enter into that haul JIT freight then? Even when I pulled food grade pneumatic, if the load loaded on time and I had the hours to make the run, if I was late and it caused problems at the manufacturer guess who paid? I’ll give you two hints. It wasn’t the shipper and it wasn’t the company that owned the trailer.

Maybe check into what some companies have to pay if a production line gets shut down. Or check into what some contracts have in them for missed appointments and other service failures. Then get back to me with your yelling about how a business to business contract can’t have fines written into it.

 

And you obviously have never entered into such a contract or know about contract law so I'll stop now because it's obvious you don't know what you're talking about. You are filling in a ton of blanks to try to make you right, NONE of which were given by the OP. You put TONS of stuff in his mouth that he didn't say. Nobody said anything about 1099, nobody said anything about signing contracts for JIT freight, etc etc. I worked with ONLY what the OP stated.

I don't care what contract you sign, if its illegal to take your money, no contract can change that. I don't care how many different scenarios you give to try to save face, YOU ARE WRONG. If you don't deliver on time, at worst, they won't pay you. THEY CAN'T FINE YOU. The OP talked about being FINED. Meaning money he earned TAKEN FROM HIM ILLEGALLY BY HIS EMPLOYER.

The guy said he was W2 anyway, so get off your high horse that you're desperately trying to hold onto as being "right" when you're simply not.

 

You quoted my post to another member where I said what I said before knowing that he was W2. Also you’ve ignored where I also apologized to the OP for assuming he was working for a shady 1099 outfit.

And you conveniently ignore other posters here who have basically said the same thing I’m saying. @Ridgeline had a good rebuttal to your post about hiring and A/C guy that tears up your yard and I don’t see you telling @ElmerFudpucker that he doesn’t know anything about contract law after he said service failures can be written into contracts.

 

From another poster in another thread here. Go find out who his friend is and maybe you can lecture them on contract law and get their $22k from Ford because they can’t charge for their line shutting down.

 

While service failures can and do occur that is primarily a B2B issue. But even as an employee the FLSA allows an employer to “dock” pay. If you don’t believe me look it up.

Grant it that there are stricter rules that apply here. And the op may or may not fall outside these rules