Please give me advice only if you are a whitness

littlefry11

So heres the situation. my whole family is jehovah whitness's. My grandfather is a po. whatever that means, i guess he's in a upper rank or whatever. Anyway. I have worked for My grandfather for 5 years. Over the 5 years of working for him. i have seen his evil ways and see what kinda person he really is deep down. He Would never pay his employee's (about 6-8 including me) Travel time on the way home , From the last jobsite. Which i have researched and have done my fair share of learning, and i have learned that it is simply illegal to not pay travel time. especially when your worker (or workers) are bringing your company vehicle back for the employers interest. so he was making an extra 300-400 bucks a week just by breaking that one simple law. Each worker would drive about 1 hour travel time home each night. He always miss classify's one of our current Employee's as an independent contractor, so he doesnt have to pay worker comp and unemployment insurance.He always used to pay all his employee's have cash and half check, (which is clearly illegal). he did this for the fact that if you worked 46 hours with 6 hours overtime, you wouldnt get paid overtime, simply because you would only see 30 hours on the check. he would simply pay half cash and half check to avoid paying overtime on paper. he has been audited by the government already for his ways. He is very aware of what he is doing. In my Mind its wrong, and it doesnt make me look at jehovah whitness's in a good way.

My question is, is this normal practice for a jehovah whitness, Especially a Po? shouldnt jehovah whitness's abide by BASIC ca and state labor laws? or is breaking labor laws not a big deal in the whitness comunity?

wantstoleave

Sounds like your grandfather is a bit shifty. He is cheating the system and getting away with it. If you feel strongly enough about it, you could report it anonymously I'm sure. I guess you could weigh it up if it was worth it or not. Also, do the employers mind that he does this? If they don't have a problem with it, I can't see him getting caught out any time soon. Unfortunately he's just one of many sneaky people around. Even JWs sometimes slip up and make mistakes. But an ongoing illegal one like this, well, it's not right. And yes, it gives the JWs a worse name, because if nothing else, they are seen to be exemplary members of society. So for him to be doing this, it's wrong on so many levels.

Side note, they aren't called PO's (presiding overseers) anymore. They have a more general label, to make it so that no one elder is seen as having more authority than the next. Though I can't remember the new title lol.

wantstoleave

If he's been audited, is that the same as an investigation? Wouldn't he have to stop business? I'm not familiar on auditing and what it involves, but if he's found to be doing things illegally, then surely they would have put him out of business? Or at least given him time to clean up his act?

yknot

Well if one goes by the comments from talks and literature....... he is not 'paying Caesar to Caesar' and that would get him reproved or even DFd should he be unrepentant .......but being a Presiding Overseer (PO) which is no longer a working title, replaced with the 'Coordinator of the Body of Elders (COBOE/COTBOE) it would take a Circuit Overseer (CO) to remove him.

In the end his actions are more individual then religious-affiliation based (though there have been other cases of financial fraud by JWs).

Our beliefs do allow for some shifty-ness in regards to telling half truths (referred to 'theocratic warfare or strategy) but I don't see how he can justify your allegations.

Talk to your state officials or a lawyer if you feel the need to if not, walk away, get another job and encourage other employees to do so too.

jookbeard

why only JW's to answer? surely newly left ones and long time leavers have a huge wealth of experience and advice to impart

undercover

Please give me advice only if you are a whitness

This is gonna be a short thread...

MissingLink

They view the outside world (both government authorities and individuals) as tools of Satan. They are all considered less than human, therefore, screwing them at any time doesn't prick the prick's consciences.

OnTheWayOut

This is not "normal practice for a jehovah whitness." Still, I get your point that you would think a "godly" fellow would be better than that.
No matter the personal cost, if I was working for a fellow like that, I would get everyone together at one of your jobs more than an hour from home. I would have someone pick us up at the job site(s). Tell the boss that pay ends here, so we all had plans. Leave his vehicles there and tell him where to pick them up.

I'd like to say they should "report" his pay activity of cash/checks. The problem is that no matter what they do to correct the situation will probably cost them their jobs. Either they will succeed and he will go out of the business, they will get fired, or he will see the light. I highly doubt he will see the light. Trying to approach his congregation elders with this problem, he would belittle his employees and say they are greedy "worldly" people.

I am fully against abusing employees like that, but it's a tough market out there in this economy. He will probably get away with this for awhile yet.

bluecanary

Members of the JWs are just people. Some are good, some are bad. Some can swing either way depending on the circumstances. Some will go out of their way to do everything properly because they believe God is watching them and they must perform up to his standards. Some will pull crap like your G-pa because they believe they are special and God will let them get away stuff as long as they work hard in his service. Unfortunately, it's the latter type that more often make it into positions of power.

bluecanary

Where are my manners? Welcome to the board, littlefry

Please give me advice only if you are a whitness

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