Is this legal???
 

My company has it written into their policy that they can garnish driver's wages for any incidents causing damage to company property. Wage garnishment is illegal in Texas (where my company operates out of). A friend of mine says what they're doing is illegal. Just because a company has something in their policy, doesn't necessary mean it's legally binding. Should I call an attorney?

Depends what kind of money your talking about. Is it over $5,000??


Now the tough question....the nosy question.......What did you do, that causes you to have to ask the question??


:bigthink:

Did you sign the form that said you agree to abide by company rules, regulations and policies? If so, you just answered your question.

I would think that if damage was done intentionally or resulted from illegal actions, the company could take an employee to court to recover financial loss.

Should we read into this that you had an "incident"...I'd have a hard time believing that a "company manual" can supercede State Law...otherwise EVERY bottom feeding employer would hire a Philadelphia lawyer to write their policy manual wouldn't they.

Maybe it's time to dust off your resume because 1) there's NO way an employer would make such a deduction from MY wages and 2) why would you want to work for such an employer?

$100 per week for about 5 months now.

I don't remember. we went over a lot of crap on orientation day and they rushed us through a lot of stuff.

If you signed an agreement that stated they can take part of your wages to pay for damage you caused, then it is a legally binding contract. For them to take $100/week for several months, you must have had quite an incident.

And again, how can an employer/employee contract supercede state law?

Just because it's in a company's policy, doesn't make it legally binding. Now my company is trying something else to soak their drivers. They're going to start charging drivers $75 everytime we park on the street leading into the lot. Drivers have to park there on weekends because the lot is full and if you are scheduled for time at home, and there's no place to drop your trailer in the lot, you're going to put wherever you can find a space! You been out on the road 3 or 4 weeks, and you want to go home... what else is there to do? This crap happens every weekend. Sometimes another driver will move the trailer you put in the lot to get to his trailer behind it, and so what if he moves your trailer out to the street? Next week, you see on your pay statement that the Company deducted $75 from your check because the trailer you dropped over the weekend was found on the street! You try to explain to them that you didn't put it there, but they think you're lying! Any other driver that drives for Design Transportation will tell you the same! They take every opportunity to screw their drivers out of as much money as they can! And they can make up any bulls**t excuse you deduct money from your check!
One night I had parked at the Flying J in Fairview, TN. I was legally parked, I had shut down about 2 hours before and was sitting in the sleeper watching a movie and having dinner, when another driver hit my truck while trying to park for the night. My company held me liable, charged me with the damages, took the money out of my check and added points to my CDL to boot!
A month later I was at a customer in California getting loaded. There was only one way into their lot. You had to back in from the street, up a hill and then down a driveway to get loaded. When my truck/trailer pivoted, my mud flap bracket caught underneath one of the cross members of my trailer and damaged the mud flap. My company held me liable, charged me with the damages, took the money out of my check and added points to my CDL to boot!
These are just a few examples of how my company rips off their drivers. No matter what happens, or what the circumstances are... the drivers gets screwed.