This is a long post, but it’s worth it, trust me.
I recently moved out of state with my wife over 20 hours from my hometown. My brother moved up with us about 2 months after I did. In the time between him moving and us being here, I found a job. My boss at this job also said he would hire my brother and rent out one of his apartments for a good price. I had never had a cross word with said boss, so I figured it was a great situation.
I’m from a state with a very low minimum wage, and this job offered $15/hr. Where I’m from, you can live off $15/hr fine enough, so it seemed fine. He also said that we never work over 7 hours in a day, and that he will pay us for 8 hours no matter how long we work. He was very big on workers rights, on how we deserved this and that, and seemed to actually care about us.
Once my brother moved in, everything changed. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what happened so I’ll just explain some of the stuff he did.
My brother has been saying he wanted a dog, so him AND my boss were looking TOGETHER to find him a dog. We were working a lot of hours (supposed to be under 7 a day, but I’ll get to that) so he wouldn’t be home during the day a lot, so OUR BOSS SUGGESTED that he get a cat. So, my brother finds a cat. Me and my brother show up to work the day after he found one, and I mention to another coworker (who loves cats) about the cat, and our boss starts screaming at my brother that he never asked to get a cat, and that he’s not allowed to do that. It turns into an argument, which turns into him slamming on the breaks, swerving the car off the interstate and making us get out on the side of the road and leaving us. We should’ve quit then, but we loved our coworkers so we stayed. This was just the beginning.
We started talking to our coworkers and noticed that we were working later and later, and we ended up learning that he tells ALL new coworkers about the 7 hour thing, and that that’s not true and he only does it for the first month you’re there. He told me on my first day that I would get paid from the time I get to the shop, till the time we get back to the shop. But now, we weren’t getting paid for the drive time to and from our jobs, from the shop. We kept up with our check stubs for a couple months and he underpaid me over $2000 and my brother over $1000. Our jobs were anywhere from 45 min- 3 hours away, so that drive time he was supposed to pay us for added up.
So then we get to the latest issue which caused the big scene.
We were supposed to get 3 sick days and 5 vacation days when you start, going by his words. My brother had a seizure one morning, and we called the ambulance at 3am and I called and let him know that neither of us would be there, he seemed fine with it.
About 2 weeks later, one of our friends came back from vacation and had covid, and I got very sick. I was our for 2 days, and he made me come back early because he said he couldn’t pay me for more than one day off while I had covid.
Then, my brother had an appointment at the neurologist for seizures. My brother doesn’t have a car, he moved up with almost nothing, and I told my boss before he got here that I would be having to take him to everything. I told my boss I would have to take him, and he lost his shit. But, I pretty much ignored it and just worked.
On my last day, he came up to my brother and asked about his appointment, during the conversation I said something, and he said “I’m not talking to you”. This dude is way older than us, lol.
Also on my last day my brother got a call that said he had an appointment the next day, and he didn’t know anything about it. I texted my boss as soon as I found out and told him that I’d be having to take my brother to an appointment. He said “are you asking or telling”, I said “I’m letting you know the situation”. I also told him “Don’t speak to me like you did this morning, respectfully” He then called me outside, where him and his dad (they own the company each 50/50) were waiting, and his dad said “Why did you need off yesterday?”, I said “My brother had an important appointment”, he said “Did you have a doctors appointment?”, I said “No, my brother did” and he said “why is that your problem?”. Without getting into detail, they then called the police on me and my brother for trespassing (even though they hadn’t fired us yet?), and then threatened to shoot us, said they would kill us if they ever saw us again, etc.
What should I do?