I live and work in Florida.

I am employeed by a company that provide installation/sevices for a major satelitte television company. and forgive me for being long winded.

First I am concidered an employee, they provide vehicle after a period of time. But all pay is based on work completed, and overtime is calculated by work completed / hours (upto 40) and 1.5 that rate for overtime, at least what they tell me, never seen it in writing, and mathmatically never figured it out yet. but I have to supply tools, etc.

Anyways I started before the hurricanes had hit florida, and during the repair process of bringing people back into service, as we closed are jobs, the company was requesting that we close it by adding the 'replaced dish' codes, even though it required only a re-alignment of the dish. I expressed by concern for this, forcing us to over state the damage incurred, and all over the news was talk about the illegalities of price gouging in florida.

Another event was that I was backed charge with out prior knowlege for a peice of equipment that was installed at the customers house, as per the request of the local office, the peice in question was sold to the customer for 50.00 USD , but I was charged 400.00 USD. When questioning on this, I requested to meet with someone to arbitrate as to why I was charged, and why I was not notified of said charges prior to being withheld. I was told to come to the office the next day, and that I could meet with the next person in the chain of command, I showed up, and after 1 hour of waiting, the manager comes out and tells me that "she (the person I was to meet) could not make it" I then asked for a way to contact her, or her office to resolve this issue, I was told by the manager, "I can not give that information out", I then asked "your refusing to give me the next chain of command number?" in which he stated "no, but I will have them call you". they never have..

Next final event, On a Thursday, I notified my supervisor that I would be late the following morning, had to take care of tires for my personal vehicle, and then Staurday, I was running late, but attempted to contact the supervisors on my tardiness, finally talked to another employee that was pulling into the parking lot, and asked then to tell them that I would be there in 15 minutes. Upon my arrival, one of the supervisor was questioning as to why I was late, I had no reason, but cleaning out the work vehicle so that I had room to pick up equipment for the week.

the next day I come to pick up work, and was told that I was not routed, I pressed as to why I was not routed, and finally one of the supervisor told me I was suspended, even thogh I had no written suspension given to me, and in the process of asking why I was not notified, etc.. one of the other supervisor jumped into my face physically 3 inches, screaming at me and stated that " because your a F^*&king troublemaker.

I promptly wrote a letter to the manager, reguarding this event and handed it to my supervisor (which was not party to this event) and expressed my concerns that this office is turning into a hostile workplace, and needed immediate resolution.

I called the manager on both events, and he stated that there would be a meeting the next day to resolve these issues. There was, and the manager walked out in about 20 minutes to take a phone call, and the meeting steadily decined (Please note that this was a meeting with many techs, and supervisors, not just on my matter).
Nothing was resolved, and I and others requested to take it to human resources, for which over a period of a week they promised to give us the numbers to the office, but still to date nothing was given. even though it was requested for quite some time.


my question are these.

1) How can an employer garnish wages without notifying employees.
2) What deems physical harasment?
3) Can I request a complete audit, for there are other financial matters, shorting checks, missing complete days of work, to have it added onto the next paycheck. and others.

4) what kind of lawyer exactly should I be looking for, if I should be looking at all? Labor Lawyer?


Thank you for this great service, to at least vent some anger.

1) How can an employer garnish wages without notifying employees. In this case, you mean make deductions from pay, rather than "garnishment" (which is withholding money at the result of a court order to repay a debt. Florida has very weak laws protecting employees, except in the area of child labor. In your situation, the answer to your question will default to federal law. Federal law does not prohibit deductions unless the deduction takes the employee below minimum wage.
2) What deems physical harasment? Beyond the criminal aspect of assaulting a person, physical harassment is not illegal from an employment law standpoint UNLESS the reason for the harassment is based on an illegal reason, such as discrimination. That doesn't appear to be the case for you.
3) Can I request a complete audit, for there are other financial matters, shorting checks, missing complete days of work, to have it added onto the next paycheck. and others. No, you do not have that authority. While some states have an agency that will investigate a shortage of pay on behalf of its citizens, Florida does not have such an agency. The only way in which you could possibly get at "an audit", is for you to file a lawsuit in court AND, if the judge feels it appropriate, will enable your counsel to issue a subpoena. This can be very costly. That fact, in itself, is a deterent against pursuing an employer for most people.
4) what kind of lawyer exactly should I be looking for, if I should be looking at all? Labor Lawyer? An employment attorney who represents plaintiffs is the appropriate attorney to turn to. Many attorneys will provide a free initial consultation to persons who feel that they have been wronged. However, I am fairly sure that you will not receive any information other than what I have provided to you (and perhaps even less - an attorney who does not believe that you have a case will just refuse to represent you).