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Imagine working at a business where you drive a work truck owned by the business. Would you prefer to drive your own vehicle to and from work and leave your work truck at work or take the work truck home with you and drive it to and from work?

In this story, the workers started out taking the trucks home with them, but when a coworker told the boss about a law he was ignoring, they started leaving the trucks at work. This created even more problems for the company to the point where the boss had to change his mind.

Keep reading for all the details.

Don’t want to pay? Then you’ll pay.

Dave is a tradesman, and was working for a bit of a jerk we’ll call Mike.

Mike has a growing business with 6 or 8 tradesmen that work out of an office/warehouse in an industrial strip mall a bit off the beaten path, in an industrial area.

His business has grown since he started with himself, and his father.

Now, there’s the workers, a dispatcher/CSR, an accountant, a warehouse guy, a data entry person, and a team that quotes new construction jobs.

Here’s the problem…

The problem is that Mike’s location comes with a limited number of parking spots, and most of them are filled with staff, leaving only a spot or two for customers.

Often, these customers park in spaces that are allocated to other units in the strip mall, which has caused friction between Mike and the other tenants.

Mike has the workers take their trucks home each night. So what ends up happening is that the worker leaves the jobsite at, say 4:30pm, and doesn’t often make it home until 6pm, depending on the distance from the site to their home.

This is in the Toronto area, where traffic is a problem every rush hour.

Mike might need to pay up.

One of Dave’s colleagues looks into it, and discovers that Ontario labour law states that a worker is to be paid from the minute he leaves his driveway, to the minute he returns. This drive to the first job (or the shop) and the return home can easily add 3 hours a day, which should be paid time, but Mike isn’t paying.

Dave’s co-worker brings this up in a staff meeting, and Mike looses his mind. “I am not obliged to pay you for travel time. If you look closer at the labour law it says that if taking the vehicle home is for the convenience of the employee, then the drive is unpaid time.”

Dave’s co-worker smiles, and agrees with Mike. “So, then, Mike, if I bring the truck back to the shop at the end of my shift, according to labour law, you have to pay me my drive time from the shop to the site, and from the site to the shop, right?”

Mike hesitates. “Have your lawyer look into it. In the meantime, I have to let you know that it’s no longer convenient for me to take the truck home. I’ll come to the shop and pick up my truck in the morning.”

Now, parking is worse than ever.

This guy had done his research, and he was absolutely correct.

It wasn’t long before the rest of the workers told Mike the same thing.

The guys came in to the shop at 7am, parked their personal vehicles in the allotted spots, then jumped into their trucks and headed for the job sites. Their time clocks started ticking as soon as they arrived and began collecting materials for the day.

Meantime, there weren’t enough vacant parking spots left for the people that worked there, and the office workers, starting at 8:30 had to park further out, which escalated the tensions between Mike and the other tenants.

Parking isn’t the only problem.

There was no indoor parking for all the trucks, which had to be left out back overnight.

As I mentioned, this industrial area was a little out of the way, so in the first month alone, there were at least three break-ins, and thousands of dollars of tools were stolen. Some belonged to the workers, who told Mike if he didn’t replace them, they would file against his insurance.

In any event, trucks were off the road for repairs each time, delaying jobs.

Mike was still paying all the workers overtime, from the time they left the shop until the time they returned, by law. Not from the time you got to the site until you left it, the way it was before. Only now, he has nowhere to park, the landlord had him on blast, and he was paying a private security company to watch the trucks overnight.

Mike has no choice but to give in.

Finally Mike relented, conceded that allowing the workers to take the trucks home was more for his convenience than theirs, and started paying the guys for drive time, like he should have been doing from the start.

The workers went back to driving the trucks home, and getting paid for the drive to the shop, or the site, and back home at day’s end.

And Dave’s co-worker? The one that opened the can of worms? He was already negotiating a new job. One that paid drive time. Which was what tipped him off in the first place.

Mike was on his butt continually after this, which wasn’t for long, because he quit and headed for the new job, leaving all his co-workers collecting far more pay every 2 weeks, to their enduring gratitude.

Wow! So the coworker who was job searching was the real hero because he didn’t just leave for a better job. He took his knowledge and helped his coworkers by making sure everyone, including the boss, knew the law.

Impressive!

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

I believe this person has it straight.

Can you sense the sarcasm?

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a customer who can’t seem to come to grips with the fact that her reward points will not cover a purchase.

This person doesn’t seem to like this revenge either.

Wow! That comments section didn’t go the way OP expected! Instead of love for paying the workers what they legally deserved, it was full of hate for picking on small business owners who have enough trouble paying the bills.

Look, I get that it’s hard to be a small business owner, but the law is the law. In this case, the law would probably motivate the owner to only hire workers who live near the office.