Well, here is my story:
I am a truck driver in Canada, if that makes a difference.
I've only been driving for about 6 years and enjoy it immensely. In the beginning, I was driving team with a particular company and always along with the guys I drove with … they'd be 5 day trips… some trucks have in-cab cams… some none… some also have voice recording devices.
Once my employment ended on great grounds due to shortage of work, I went to work for an ex employer. The guy I drove with previously was absolutely amazing. He wasn't available to team up , however. So I would have to team up with a second person… great… a trip was scheduled for the following week.
Now this is during the height of COVID. So texted the boss with several questions and requests
- What measurements to take for covid protection
- He knows I smoke so l, but wanted to 100% make sure that whoever he sent me out with either smoked, or didn't mind me smoking … if they didn't smoke, it would have been their choice to travel with me for 5 days
He assured me that that would be the case. And as a matter of fact, the guy he was sending me out with also smoked.
Perfect.
This was all on the Tuesday … so almost a week… before we left Monday.
I won't go into the weekends activities to try and settle things.
I'm a heavy smoker.
Anyway, Monday comes and I get to the yard. It is then that the boss tells me the second guy he scheduled me to travel with backed out and that he is sending me with another great guy….
Who didn't smoke … and did mind traveling with someone who smoked … and he knew this over the weekend but didn't tell me.
So now, we are transferring our things from our cats to the truck … we have to spend 5 days in a truck together… and I don't know this guy from Adam… but I'm trying to break the ice and make small talk… he at this point doesn't know I smoke .. and I'm sure the boss didn't tell him.. but that's all I got were snickers and the roll of the eyes… I said to myself 'this is going to be a good trip'.. but got in the truck to start our trip… it was the job…
So as soon as I started the truck, haven't left the yard yet.. I lit up a cigarette… he said 'what are you doing?!'
Me: 'having a smoke'
Him: I'm not traveling all the way to Toronto and back with you smoking…
Me: I made arrangements with the boss to set me up with someone who doesn't mind me smoking
And kept going
Now 4 hours into the trip… and I did cut back on the amount I normally smoke … he was sleeping … we stopped for fuel … he started an argument about wanting to drive after 4 hours … that's not how it works … despite the numerous text messages I sent over the weekend asking how he wanted to organize the shifts… In any case, that incident ended up with him throwing my personal personal belongings around the cab of the truck… and intentionally or not, ended up hitting me on the side of my head …
I phoned the RCMP to report an assault… but because there no marks.. they said, forget about it…
Tried to get a hold of the boss in the middle of the night with about 15 phone calls to no avail…
I parked the truck and took the key with me on the advise of one of the officers until I got a hold of the boss in the morning … I slept on A & W's restaurant's bench….
So in the morning, got a hold of the boss to tell him what happened…
Longer story short, I let the MF talk me into continuing the trip… which remember, we are only 4 hours into the trip.
So along we go, I'm not smoking as much as I normally do as we shift change or in the sleeper part of the truck.
So now we are a day and half into the trip.
I figure, ok, this might give me a chance to cut back some.. at one point in Medicine Hat, AB I stopped the truck… got out and had a cigarette on the side of the road… so not in the truck.
Once I got back in the truck and was driving full speed at 105 kms an hour, this guy starts yelling about me smoking … I don't know or care what language other than English he is yelling… but I'm telling him, I'm not smoking … he yells some more …. and I started to yell back at him ….
I guess he didn't like that. He come flying from behind the curtain that separates the cab from the sleeping quarters throwing gallon bottle of water at me… punching me in the shoulder..and then the head…. and grabbing the steering wheel
THIS IS ALL HAPPENING WHILE IM DRIVNG 105KMS down a dark highway. I'm swerving across the highway like Wayne Gretzky on ice.
Thank Jesus there was no other traffic on the road…
I'll skip some of the story that how those events affected my physiological well being for the next 26 hours…
In short, I called the RCMP again… in a different province… told them I felt my life was in danger … gave them a description of the truck and trailer to have them stop it and extract me from the vehicle… which they did.
.
They arrested him for assault on the spot… but charges were dropped later in that same instance… for reasons I won't go into unless asked.
OK good, so I had to get back to BC on my own and had to spend $900 to rent a car..
So now I get back to BC…
And I am trying to get paid for the time I spent in the truck… the boss is totally ignoring me
Oh dear… the amount of typing…
So I go to the labor board…
And I should mention that I didn't get paid for the trip i did in November of 2019… and he's trying not to pay me for June 2020… 6 months later …
So the labour board doesn't work on getting money back for expenses, so I'm out $900 to rent a car to get home.
And normally you have only 90 days to make a claim for none payment…. but in the they ended up getting the June 2020 pay, as well as the November 2019 pay.
Now, was I satisfied?
He'll no, i was out $900
My next step was to go to the Worker's Compensation Board …. and filed a bullying and harassment claim.
The claim was denied based on my wording of the events that tool place. But then the WCB referred it to the Worker's Advisory Board … Which is a branch of WCB of lawyers that work pro Bono on the behalf of employees.
Long story short, after they got through re summarizing my accounts of events and putting them in actionable words… the claim was approved… not without further steps tho.
In the end, and after 2 years, I got a $5,000 settlement