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!!!
