Yeah so Steve came home a little bit ago and gave me the low down. Basically I’m passwording this because um, yeah, lawsuit. So anyway…

Apparently everyone who can is auditing Steve’s boss… including the labor board and apparently the IRS. We knew the guy was a bit crooked, but sheesh. It looks like he’s really been cheating and padding things. We knew he skimmied off the prevailing wage jobs but never really worried too much about it – he has the legal right to deduct from them some money to make up for paid holidays, but he’s been deducting for 10 when they only get 6 each year. That is just one example. (Oh a prevailing wage job is one that basically is paid for by the government, so we are really happy when Steve gets one of those because he gets paid like three times his normal wage. Last Christmas we were ‘saved’ because he had a whole 40 hours of one of those, got those last minute gifts for everyone.)

So anyway – some of the guys have been doing some asking/researching/calling, etc. and they’ve found out that Mike is owed a couple of thousand dollars because of this and Raul –get this– is owed like $12,000. Steve would be somewhere in between, although closer to Mike probably because Raul gets a lot of prevailing. Mike doesn’t hardly ever get any because the boss knows he does “rat” (side) work.

So everyone and their brother is setting up to sue his boss. He’s paying some lawyer to defend him like $500 an hour or something. If he loses… can we say bankrupt? And can we say everyone’s out of a job? Yeah.

There are other complaints too, of course — some of you might remember that whole union deal that went down like a year or so ago. Not sure what’s going to happen there now.

And also, I don’t know if I mentioned this or not, but a couple of weeks ago all the guys had to take pee-drug tests because of that one guy who was making/selling the meth. Well come to find out today that there are at least three that did not pass and it’s another one of those “here’s the rules, but they don’t suit me right now and I’m the boss and so forget them” things. These guys are still working even though “anyone doing drugs will be fired” blah blah blah because he “can’t afford to fire three right now.” So that right there shows you the double-facedness of this guy.

So let’s hope for a couple of things….
1. Steve’s boss does have to pay for his actions, as everyone is responsible for their own actions and should be held accountable
2. But that all the guys get what they deserve (back pay, etc)
3. If Steve does lose his job that something else out there opens up quickly
4. If he does lose his job, that I find something… quick.

I mean, I guess we’re okay if he has to change jobs… it’s just a matter of what happens in between the time he loses the one and finally gets another?
And it’s going to be hard, too because this job is based right here in our town, anything else worth anything is probably going to be quite a drive. If he has to drive to St. Louis, I’m not sure what will happen – gas money for each week will probably quadruple and he won’t get home until much later and what will happen to his classes that he’s taking??

So many unanswered questions… so much insecurity…

:-x