So my (22f) boyfriend (23m) finally quit his job after realizing it was a complete sham. He was hired on March 1st to a CUI Cable Services branch in Louisiana. He did contract lineman work in the past, but after issues from joining the military and an ex who stole his money, he's essentially had to rebuild his life and I've been supporting him every step of the way last year.
The first week of his “training” was literally building the office (which was inside an oversized storage unit I might add). He learned the bare BASICS of installing cable. Like I mean one day was just putting together an ethernet cable and then they sent him home. He was working 4 hours a day, getting paid for 8 hours, and the training pay was about $8.15. Let it be known that his BOSS was hired TWO DAYS before he was. The training for him and his coworkers was nonexistent.
He did not get paid until 3 weeks after his first day because something was wrong with payroll. Nearly half the people quit after the second week because of the company not paying them. Things started seeming really fishy, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and said maybe it's because it's a branch that's starting up. Let it be know that the branch had NO work vehicles.
So this past Wednesday, the company make the boss, my boyfriend, and another “super tech” travel from Southern Louisiana to Birmingham, Alabama just to bring back two work trucks. They left at 6 a.m. and did not get back until 1:30 a.m. Why? Because the boss' personal truck overheated on the side of the interstate. The company did nothing to help and the boss had to refuel all three vehicles with his own money.
The vehicles were beaten down. The tools were crappy hand-me-downs. One of the vans caught a flat so they had to take a while different vehicle from a separate branch location. The vehicle they took had to be driven with the windows down because exhaust was coming into the vehicle through the AC. Let it be known, my boyfriend was on the clock for a total of 18 hours and was supposed to be paid for the entirety of this trip. However, because he was “training” he couldn't make over 40 hours and his “super tech” (commission) pay didn't start until the following day apparently.
Fast forward to today, his job makes him fill out a contract saying that any damages to the work vehicle would come out of his pocket and that he would has to pay for any extra gas as the company will only supply $100 for gas A WEEK on the gas card. His job to work on today was supposed to be from 2 to 3. He shows up at the customer house to find out that he'd be doing a complete install from pole to a sketchy trailer. HE would have to drill holes into the customers home. He knew he was not trained in this and did not have the proper equipment. Boss man showed up, dropped off more equipment, and left him. The job alone would take him 6 hours to complete on his own and he would only make $70 off of it.
He was pissed. He didn't want to do something that could put a liability on his back if he fucked up. He didn't want to get paid essentially minimum wage for hard labor. The boss man refused to help him even though he explained he was not trained for this. After sometime he text me to come pick him up. He left every tool, his work phone, and the keys to the van inside his work van and we got the fuck outta there. Thankfully he received 2 checks so far and has roughly $1200 from the past month, but God it was a waste of time.
TL;DR Cable company that hired my boyfriend was royally fucking him over. He left everything in his work van and quit.