Boss Made Excuses About Unpaid Overtime—Until The Mechanic Built A Case Against Him
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Imagine having a job you like with a coworker who quickly becomes your friend. If the boss refused to pay you the overtime he owed you, would you keep pestering him until he finally pays you or believe his sob stories about not being able to afford to pay you?
In this story, one man is in this situation, and he does not fall for the boss’s lies. Instead, when his friend is promoted and has access to more information about the boss’s shady tactics, he is able to gather all the evidence he needs to take the boss to court and win big time!
Keep reading for the very satisfying ending to this story.
My father’s former boss didn’t pay him overtime while scamming hundreds of people, so he made him lose over half a million dollars.
My father has been working in the auto mechanic industry for around 21+ years now, even before I was born.
This story takes place when he was working for a well known company we will call M, and his boss who we will call Pete.
Pete owned several M shops in my state, his most prized one being in the northern area of the state. My father worked in a shop that was a little outdated with its equipment, but was in a wealthy town.
Various police reports were filed against Pete and his managers because of making reports on the cars. This will be important for later.
Everything seemed great at this job at first.
Story: My father starting working for Pete in 2006, after he had to quit his former job working for another company with great benefits.
He ended up working well over 70+ hours a week, with double time, so he couldn’t complain at all.
He met a really good friend named Frank, and they got along extremely well, and became friends really quickly.
I met Frank one Friday afternoon after my ride home from school made a quick stop to visit the shop for an oil change. Frank was an extremely nice family man, just my my father, and everything seemed fine for several years.
All good things must come to an end.
Then, the unexpected happened.
My father had noticed that his paycheck has been short for the past year (2008-2009), and had started to log his work hours.
Unfortunately, my father didn’t own any smartphones, or any recording devices, as when you are a mechanic, you are paid anywhere from $15-$25 and are expected to pay for tools that cost thousands.
He went to Pete and requested to know why his paychecks have been short as of recent. This is how the conversation went down as my dad has told me:
Pete made excuses.
Pete: Unfortunately, our two shops have not been making enough profit on jobs (lie, as he opened a new shop, but had more than enough money to pay my father), and we are in a tight financial struggle as of now. However, I promise that you will get your money within the next year.
Dad: Alright, but I will not be working any more overtime until I am owed my time, (showing Pete the logged times and hours worked) which translates to $52,000.
Pete: Do not worry, I will make sure that you receive your check by the end of the one year mark.
Fast forward a year and a half, and he had not received a dime from Pete and had not mentioned a thing about paying him back.
But then he learned more about Pete.
My father was getting irritated by this, but decided to continue waiting.
Frank had received a promotion to a manager position, and this is where the juicy information gets relayed to my father.
Pete had taught Frank as a manager to scam EVERYONE who walks through the doors of the shop to gain additional income, as it was the “Unofficial Company Policy”, so Pete could gain additional income, and living the great life in his Mansion. (Pete was very wealthy, which we learned through Frank, and ended up having a nice Mercedes, several other cars, and went out to 5 Star Restaurants on a daily basis.)
My father took this information, along with the several logged police reports for later use.
OP’s dad didn’t let on that anything was wrong.
A few months later, Pete told my father that “I cannot pay you your owed amount of $52,000, but you will still be required to work overtime to get these jobs done. I am terribly sorry for the inconvenience.”
My father smiled and told him not to worry about it.
A scheme was forming, as Pete just oiled the cogs to screw himself over.
The Revenge: A few months go by, and my father, Frank, and the “kid” of the shop discuss about taking P to court, and suing him for not getting their paid overtime, as this was effecting them too.
Evidence is important.
They gathered months worth of information (Frank was useful as he had access to sensitive files in his manager position), and all planned to go to court.
Unfortunately, Pete caught wind of the operation, and threatened to fire Frank and the kid, while immediately terminating my father.
The two guys ended up backing out at the very last moment, but my father ended up having all the evidence he needed.
Pete was going to get screwed.
OP’s dad was prepared.
My father first brought the logs of his unpaid overtime, along with having the years worth of pay stubs to provide even further evidence of the overtime, along with bringing up the police reports, and the court summoning the victims of the scams.
The look on Pete’s face was ghost white according to my father, as he knew he was done for.
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The IRS and State led an investigation against Pete because of the victims of fraud, and they found out that he has not paid any taxes for the past five years.
It did not end well for Pete.
He was given fine after fine, along with the victims money to be returned to them, and my father’s owed overtime.
All of those fees ended up racking up to be a total $750,000!
After a year long court case, my father ended up winning the case, along with compensation due to wrongful termination (he was fired after Pete learned he was about to be sued).
I will not disclose the exact amount that was paid, but it was well over the $52,000 he was owed.
Don’t mess with my father’s money, otherwise, you are in for a very bad time.
It’s awful when rich people just keep getting richer by scamming their customers and employees. I’m glad Pete got caught and fined for all of his wrongdoings. Frank was the real hero here though for gathering information OP’s dad wouldn’t have had access to otherwise.
Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.
This person made a correction.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who is let go from a charity due to budget cuts, then gets blowback from the board over her severance.
Another person made the same correction.
I’m surprised there weren’t more comments that commented on the actual story instead of just correcting a mistake in the text, but whatever.
The real point here is not to let your boss get away with ripping you off. If he tells you a sob story but drives up to his mansion in his fancy car, it’s hard to believe that he really can’t afford to pay you what you’re owed.
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