Friday, 24 June 2011

They can't keep everyone down!


Just to be clear: This post is from a friend of ours who beat H&R in court.

I tried to post this on Micks Blog H&R Transport Lethbridge but I couldn't get on it.

Last year Mick wrote a post regarding his pal who had been sacked from H&R, this post received many negative comments about him and Brits in general.

Well his pal is, as you know, my husband and I would like to tell all those H&R lovers and mindless morons out there that we reported H&R to the Labour Board as soon as it happened and in February this year, almost 11 months after his sacking, myself and my husband went into an adjudication hearing which I could only describe as like a court case but not so formal.

I would like to note that we have no legal training and at no point did we seek legal advice, the knowledge that he had done nothing wrong and the protocol H&R followed drove us to persue the company and after compiling evidence and questions we entered into the unknown to face them across a table and went in with both barrels! It was like a court case in that they presented their "evidence" and witnesses which I could then cross examine and then we presented our evidence and witnesses to which their HR person could then cross examine.
The hearing lasted 7 hours with only 30 mins break for lunch and 2 short comfort breaks. To say we were exhausted at the end of it is an understatement, it was both mentally and physically draining.
After a mountain of documents, policies, etc being entered as evidence first by H&R then came a written witness statement, followed by their next witness the , "Driver Recruitment and Compliance Coordinator" , and we all know who that is, well to say that I took great pleasure in pulling that "man" apart is an understatement as his last email to my husband after his sacking was along the lines of "let me know when you would like a flight booking back to the UK", after all this is what they probably expected us to do.

Next came their "Vice President of Loss and Compliance for H&R Transport". He proceeded to give a long statement relating to the regulatory environment for the Department of Transportation in the USA. Again it gave myself and my husband great pleasure to cross examine him and pull holes apart in H&R training and pre and post trip inspection.

Finally it came to our turn my husband was a witness and we had another witness who flew over to give his evidence and a witness who gave evidence over the phone, only my husband was cross examined by H&R Transport.
Finally we both sides had to give closing statements. It was made clear at the start of the hearing that this was the last stop for the complaint and that no further action could be taken after the decision by the adjudicator was made.
The adjudicator stated that, if a decision of unjust dismissal was awarded, she could only compensate our personal financial loss that had be incurred since the dismissal. We offered into evidence figures to show the amount of loss we had from the date of dimissal to the date his contract was due to end with H&R Transport, deductions and to be made for wages from other employers during this period.

In May I received by email a copy of the decision that the adjudicator had made.
I cried when I read that she had upheld the complaint and that my husband WAS unjustly dismissed. H&R Transport were ordered to pay the sum that we had put into evidence by the 10 June 2011. On the 8 June H&R finally did the first decent thing and sent a cheque by courier post dated to the 10 lol!!!

13 comments:

chris arbon said...

Great result, Industrial tribunal aren't for the faint-hearted, especially in the company's own back yard. Well done.

Anonymous said...

Well done This is a classic David and Gloath Story. This needs to go onto other trucking fourms.

Anonymous said...

About time someone made them 'suck it up'!

Phil said...

Well done justice at last

Paul said...

nice 1 ide of liked 2 c lyndons face lol [ ex h and r driver[

Anonymous said...

Yes, correctly.

clint said...

Mick come on tell me if you are lazy cant get anywhere on time why would they give you a job.Must be like alot of the brits dont do your home work before you get here.Most of you want it to be just like england well suck it up this is canada.Mick i dont work for H+R anymore as i have moved on to do different things,poor old lyndon cant win he has to do and say what the company wants him to say,And court cases you were nearly taken by air canada.Anyway mick i have said my 2cents you stay in england you cant get lost there missed your whinning and your friend chris lumsdon is back in the uk dont spend all your money speak soon clint

Mick said...

Thanks Clint.
The court case was not mine, if you take time to actually read the post!

Never on time? nope, always on time as far as was legally possible if I remember correctly.

Of course poor old Lyndon can win, he has the same choices as everyone, he doesn't need to do what they ask, he can walk.

Suck it up? Not me mate, I have too much pride.

BTW: Air Canada came out worse off after they were investigated for putting passengers lives at risk allowing muslims to board aircraft with masks on.

Anonymous said...

Mick, like I say mindless ignorant morons!

The adjudication was for my husband not Mick.

Mick kindly posted something for me last year to ask if anyone out there knew companies with LMOs, so I just wanted Mick to post about the hearing as it is justice at last.

BTW Lyndon DOES have a choice. He was there at the time as driver relations, what a joke!!
The guy needs to grow a set and if he had stood up for 'his' driver more at the time of the incident instead of assuming we would just run back to the UK never to be heard from again, then he would not have been sitting in front of an adjudicatorgetting so tongue tied!

The adjudication is now avaiable via the HRSDC and makes very good reading, you will then see the whole story.
As for doing homework, look at the amount of blogs and forums where comments are made to make people aware of what the reality is like as a trucker, or 'the meat in the seat' but no they are all shot down in flamesby the blog writers.

Even though the company were found to have unjustly dismissed a driver who was quoted at the hearing by the Human Resources Manager as being "an excellent driver who H&R would recommend to future employers" and had to pay $000's for loss of earnings I am sure there will still be people out there saying we should have "sucked it up"! Well just remember it could happen to you!

Anonymous said...

Well said Cath! My husband is also an ex H&R driver who left the company - not because he didn't 'suck it up' but because of the lies, the lack of money & the general unprofessional attitude of a certain 'driver relations manager' - who incidentally 8 months later has yet to respond to my request for a breakdown of what my husband allegedly owes H&R!!! Methinks once he did his calculations - it turns out that H&R actually owe us money??? We are looking to get back to Canada with the intention of working for someone else - am sure there are some decent companies there that actually value their drivers that work hard and reward them accordingly. Fingers crossed!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mick,

Can I please clarify the adjudication was NOT between Mick and H&R, and Cath did not write this post. We are very good friends of them both and have asked Cath to post our situation on this Blog as we did not write a blog to account our story ourself. Last year Mick wrote a post on his blog asking the readers if they knew of any employers out here with LMOs. I just wanted to share the outcome of our situation to show others that when you have done nothing wrong you can stand up to H&R Transport.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Excellent!

Edward Bailey said...

I also was sacked by H and R by email no less and on reading this has cheered me up no end. I just wish i could of seen that spineless cock sucking lyndon's face on hearing the judgement. A bloody good days job done. fantastic.