I started a newspaper delivery job working nights a few weeks ago. The job is 7 days a week from 1 am until your deliveries are completed. I'm paid by the hours I work, the mileage, and the number of deliveries. It's easy, I have a solid route in my neighborhood, and it's pretty good pay.
A little backstory-I've been a stay at home dad for a few years due to lack of help from family, the hospitality industry doesn't have great pay/hours for my situation, and my wife is a nurse making over 100k, so we were pretty stable financially for a while. Times are tough recently and the extra money is definitely helpful.
I had mentioned to my boss that I need a few nights off due to gigs with my band and my son's bday before I started working. The first of which was 3 weeks away. I was told it wasn't a problem, just don't call off the day of and everything is fine. One of my requested days off was this week, and I noticed my pay was short over $250. The math didn't add up for missing one night so I called and asked (respectfully) why my check was so short. I figured there was a mistake or a clerical error. He responded with because I didn't work, there was nobody to delivery to my route (he literally said “nobody wants to work”) and because of this, he had to mail out all the newspapers on my route which he has to pay out of pocket (apparently, out of pocket meant out of MY pocket.) I was not told this before starting the job and am a bit pissed off and confused. He acted like it was common knowledge and if I didn't like it, I can quit. Lots of attitude and pretty much a “fuck you, deal with it” tone. It was not mentioned before I started and I was told to refer to a hand written note on our warehouse wall for clarification.
Is this common in the industry? Am I wrong for being pissed off? I figured he had ample time to find coverage for my route (I wasn't asked to find coverage, if so, I would have.) I feel like this isn't legal, especially because I wasn't informed of the (handwritten) policy and this seems unprofessional. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.