Former employer lies

[Spleenu]

Hello, I am new to truckingboards, so forgive me if I'm not posting this in the right place.

I have a bit of a problem. I am a class b driver, and was a city transit bus driver for about a year and a half. They are the only company that I've driven for and I obtained my class b through the company. Things had gotten progressively worse as far as the equipment which I drove. But in most instances it wasn't a matter of safety.

However, one day I was driving and my left front tire blew. So I stopped the bus and called dispatch. They wanted me to continue on route with a busload of passengers on the flat. I refused to to obvious safety and liability reasons. They sent another driver out with another bus, and brought me back to the yard and fired me for insubordination.

So I decided to take a break from driving for a while after that.

Now I am ready to get another job either driving a bus or straight truck of some sort, but have found out that the transit bus company is reporting to my potential employers that I was given a random drug screen and that it was a refusal to test.

The only thing I can guess other than them out and out lying about it is that later on that day I was pulled by the computer for a random before it was entered in that I was no longer employed with them.

I got a copy of my DAC report, and fortunately there is nothing about it on there. However, there is still the issue of the release of drug and alcohol information forms that are sent to previous employers.

Does anybody have any tips/suggestions? I love to drive, and would really like to be able to drive for a living again.

Oh, and BTW, it was about a year and a half ago that this happened.

Thanks a bunch

[wonderring99]

Welcome to the truckingboards Spleenu. I am sorry to hear what your former employer has done to you. Please check back here because someone will have had a similar situation that had happened to them and will give you rock solid advice on how to fight what your former employer did to you.

[SevenOfNine]

Talk to a lawyer!

Here is a link to one that deals a lot with trucker's employment issues. He might be able to atleast give you some advice on how to proceed if you email him.

Employment Lawyer Burnsville Minnesota Wrongful Termination Whistleblower Attorney

[Stan Smith]

Check your state, but most are considered At-will employment. Basically, if you can not prove it by paper or hard evidence LEGALLY, you got NOTHING. I am not a lawyer and I am not saying you have nothing, rather trying to give you a scope of most people's employment agreement under the law. One thing you can do is write down EVERYTHING that happened with all the details you can remember like time, people, places etc. It is important to do this as soon as you have a chance to do so after calming down, because we tend to forget things more the longer we wait. In addition, maybe make a copy of this document and keep the original. Then mail the copy to yourself. The postal service stamps EVERYTHING and this can later serve in a court of law in many things, while never opened. In closing, find a lawyer who specializes in this area and try to keep it all with him.

I hope and pray it all works out for you one or another! Some links below that may help.

At-will employment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Employment At Will: What Does It Mean?

History of At-Will Employment Law in the USA

[Spleenu]

Hopefully I may have some good news on this. Two weeks ago I applied at one of the other contractors operating the transit buses and they told me that they would check out my references and such, and if everything was fine, they would contact me for an interview. Well, I got the call today and I have my interview on Thursday.
::crosses fingers::

Thank you all for your input and I will keep it in mind in case I need it.