Sheffield Safety & Loss Control Paul WojcieszakDave Cherven employee not paid, unpaid wages, lied about contract, no reimbursement for expenses Chicago Illinois
i was an employee at sheffield safety and loss control. i was contracted to work as an environmental health and safety consultant at bp. contract was suppose to go 9 months. contract went 1 month= 1st deception. next they told me i would go to colorado and if i drove and used my own car (which was brand new) they would pay me mileage. mileage was never paid to or from the job as agreed and it was about 100 mile round trip commute daily. this job was in a very rural area. sheffield neglected to tell me that i was obligated to take 142 defined practice tests on my own time and the osha 40hr hazwoper class which took at least 40 hrs and never got paid for any of my time spent doing these required courses/classes for the jobsite. i got in an accident on the way to work, i hit a deer that destroyed my car. i had to take off work to get a rental because they did not want bp to find out or see my car and find out about the accident that happened on the way to work. they charged me for the hotel while i was getting my car fixed. they ended up terminating me. they asked me to mail their compuer and phone back. i paid $111.88 to mail the items to them and was never reimbursed. they owed me 14 hrs of work and made up excuses why not to pay me. extremely shady company........stay away!!
1 Updates & Rebuttals
JohnBrenden
Illinois,letter from owner, receipts & replies to owner
#2Author of original report
Thu, September 19, 2013
As for Paul's responses;
1) I admit that I sent an email that said do not think their will not be repercussions for you trying to rip me off. Furthermore, I did say do not be suprise if I show up at the office/house (they run their office out of a back of a house with no signing indicating a business was there.... should have been a sign to me that it was a shady operation) until I get paid. My car was seriously damaged on the way to work in Rico so I said do not be suprised if I stop by there with my buddy (s) due to the fact that would be my means of transportation. I would assume most people would be pissed at someone ripping them off and not paying them for work performed. Furthermore, Paul indicated the email was September 9. By Illinois law, an employee is supposed to be paid what is owed to them upon termination (which was July 30). They refused to pay postage for me to return their items and tried to use that as an excuse to delay payment. The lawyers I talked to said this is common amongst small companies and is 100% illegal.
2) I talked to several lawyers and I am still in communication. I have a year for the unpaid wages to file a lawsuit. I already sent proof to the lawyers in regards to expenses, not being paid time and a half for overtime & wrongful termination. I am just trying to decide with the lawyers what is my best options. So, do not worry you will hear from me.....that I promise.
3) I am going to attach a copy of my rental expense & my expense to fedex your computer and other company items to you. I do not have the drawings receipt as I told you in previous emails due to you saying not to go back to the office (where the receipt was in the top drawer of my desk). Even now when they see the receipts (again because they were sent twice before) I guarantee they will not do the right thing and send a check reimbursing me.
4) Location of the hotel issue. I told Paul and Dave I did not want to live in Rico for several reasons. One, the hotel is not really a hotel. They rent bunk beds and everything is shared. I would be nervous of getting items stolen. Next, their is no grocery store in Rico Colorado. The closest town with a grocery store is Teluride which is extremely expensive and I understand them not wanting to pay for a hotel their. So the next closest town is Cortez so I searched extensively for a hotel with a reasonable rate. The holiday in wanted $149 a night so I found the Baymount for around $70 a night.
Lastly, for all the readers. I have never sued anyone in my life. I try to talk to people like a human being and be as reasonable as possible. That being said, I have never had a company try to bully me and literally just try to rip me off because they probably gotten away with it in the past. If the company pays me what they owe me I will update my messages & hope them the best in the future. However, I do not count on that because they probably got away with this in the past. Look over my attached receipts. Look over the letter Paul sent me and the excuses he came up with for not paying me what is owed to me. I get paid every two weeks. My phone was stolen and reported to the company on July 4th. They said do not worry about it, we will send you a replacement but it is a cheaper phone. I said thank you. Now he is charging me for a phone?? Also he charged me to send the phone through the mail. Yet, i have a receipt for sending him his company items via UPS and he does not reimburse me??? Maybe it is just me but I think that is highly unethical and shady. Please be careful if you ever have to deal with this company and their unethical practices.