Complaint Review: Allied Barton - Austin Texas

Allied Barton......hmmmm. I dont know about other districts, but I have a few things to state about the Austin Texas District. I was an employee that recently separated from the company in Austin, at the SAS site.

1. The handbook clearly states that if you call off and have a doctors note, that it is an excused absence. In the month previous to my resignation The AB Austin District Manager, made a new policy. The policy was that anybody who called off even if you had a doctors note or proof of an emergency, even a death in the family, that you receive an unexcused absence write-up. I spoke with the labor board on this matter and they said it is completely illegal. Hmmm.......

2. Also in the month prior to my resignation. HR department of AB always talks about how they do not allow retaliation of seperated or seperating employees. Heres the story. An officer who had a week left on his 2 weeks notice, didnt like another employee and wanted him written up. The employee did not get written up so the officer who did not like him thought that he was the only person who had ever been treated unfairly(poor little ROD) so he told the Account Manager that several people were doing drugs. A few days later a few employees from the District Office show up. Notably the DISTRICT MANAGER, HR and the TRAINER. They conducted what they said was their "annual drug screen." Now just to state there was an employee who had been there 5 years.......said they have never had annual drug screenings. Wow I wonder if people were being retaliated against? ok, so on with the story. They then conducted the annual drug screening on every employee. Oh did I mention that they did not get permission from the client to conduct this drug screening on site. So, about 20 employees tested positive. The more valuable employees. Like Admin, Site Supervisor....got to keep their jobs, the others did not. Some employees opted to have their urine samples sent to the lab. The District Manager tried to tell each person that wanted theirs sent to the lab that they never get them back with a different result, and that it wasnt worth it. Wow really OUR JOBS ARENT WORTH IT?!?!?! What kind of manager is this! So anyways they sealed the samples, forgot to bring sealed bags to put them in, didnt have anybody initial their seals, and last of all and most ILLEGAL they didnt have one single person sign a CHANGE OF CUSTODY FORM. A few days later they tried to call a few of the employees and have them come in to sign the change of custody forms....HAHAHAHA are you kidding me. How would you know that its your urine. WOW. One employee called a lawyer and then called the home office back. They then changed their mind and said he could take another drug test that friday at a clinic. When he got to the clinic, it was a hair folicle test. Wow, so totally did not even get a fair urine sample like everyone else. The office was the one that screwed up. Doesnt make sense to me, does it to you?

3. alLIED Barton constantly says they are an Equal Opportunity Employer. We had EEOC meetings every year and had training on it once a year. So when the hurricane hit in 2010 in the gulf Allied Barton had a contract with FEMA or something to help out down there. The pay was really good and a bunch of austin AB sites were telling all of their officers about it. SAS site had no clue. It was kept quiet from SAS officers. When we had our yearly meeting several employees asked why we were not informed. They told us we were too critical of employees at SAS to have us leave for a few weeks to months and come back. Just before this topic we were talking about raises and they stated that the quality of work we were giving wasnt enough to get us raises. Sound backwards right? The DISTRICT MANAGER made the decision to keep it quiet from SAS officers. Again, what kind of MANAGER is this? So, EEOC or not?

There are several other topics I could bring up but it would make this sooo sooo long. Im sure there are tons of seperated and current employees of this company out there that will comment on this and add their own stories.