Garbage Man Jailed For Starting Work Too Early.

[Rageaholic]

Wow

So many things wrong with this. But lets focus on the fact that this guy was just an employee. How was he supposed to know about some obscure law? If they must punish someone (and by 'punish', I mean a very small fine), it should be the employer for making him work those hours.

Just when you think you've seen the stupidest court case, another one comes along to top it.

EDIT: Another link to the same story.

[Greenday]

Wow

So many things wrong with this. But lets focus on the fact that this guy was just an employee. How was he supposed to know about some obscure law? If they must punish someone (and by 'punish', I mean a very small fine), it should be the employer for making him work those hours.

It's kind of your responsibility to know the laws of your job. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse for breaking it. Clearly the company should be fined to hell for it, but since when is "Well, my boss told me to do it so it's not my fault." acceptable?

[Rageaholic]

^

Ignorance is an excuse in this case. How was he supposed to know that doing his job as a garbageman would land him in jail?

[Andara Bledin]

Because, you should totally expect your boss to give you orders to do something illegal... >_>

I'm absolutely sure that you've investigated every order you've ever received for legality, right?

[Gravekeeper]

Charges were dropped ( mainly because it was his first offence )

The context of the situation is important though:

The city solicitor says he's tried everything to get sanitation workers to stop coming to communities before 7 a.m. He says he’s tried fining the companies they work for, but it doesn't work; so now he's decided to haul them off to jail.

Sounds like its been a long, ongoing issue. The prosecutor in question has also met with the companies in question several times prior to this over this issue. The company that employs this guy in particular has already racked up thousands in fines for this. So these companies are fully aware of the law but don't give a rat's ass. The company has an official policy of not going out before 5am but clearly the unofficial policy is different.

I also haven't seen anything where the guy claimed ignorance of the law as a defence. The company sent a rep with him to court fully expecting to just pay a fine and leave. So this must be pretty standard operating procedure for the company.

This is what they get for privatizing sanitation work instead of the city running it themselves. -.-

[HYHYBT]

So why is the company so insistent that their trucks run so early? How does that benefit them?

[fireheart17]

So why is the company so insistent that their trucks run so early? How does that benefit them?

I don't know about you guys, but over here the garbos tend to run early because there aren't as many cars on the road, so they aren't dealing with dickhead drivers who are way too impatient or who can't navigate around them.

[Gravekeeper]

I don't know about you guys, but over here the garbos tend to run early because there aren't as many cars on the road, so they aren't dealing with dickhead drivers who are way too impatient or who can't navigate around them.

Less fuel costs from idling perhaps and in turn less paid hours to drivers? Or if they run the full sanitation service including dumping/incinerating etc; Sooner you get it all in the sooner you can process it all and save money on operational costs? There has to be some incentive to it and given its a private company that incentive is obviously monetary in some way. They aren't batting an eyelash at $1000 fines so they must be saving big somewhere with earlier operation.

They were probably fine with having the new guy be a patsy instead of another fine. -.-

[s_stabeler]

Actually, "I was following orders" IS a defense in cases where the order is seemingly legitimate and is coming from a legitimate authority. ( His employer is certainly authorised to set his working hours, therefore, he could reasonably have assumed that he was legally allowed to pick up trash at said hours)

Or, to put it a different way: What would people's reaction be if it turned out that the garbage man had been told to go out that early or lose his job? The guy wasn't an independant contractor, and i don't know any employer that would tolerate an employee sitting aorund for two hours before starting their job after clocking in.

[drunkenwildmage]

Update to the story.. They suspended the jail sentence.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local...er-who-/nkRk5/


IIRC: Sandy Springs was on the local radio a couple years ago, because they had privatized pretty much any service they could, and the local talk station was pushing that with our city government.

[Kuari]

This blows my mind. What is the employee supposed to do if they know the bylaws prohibit him from starting the garbage pick up prior to 7am but the employer tells him that he has to be out on the streets earlier or risks losing his job? They're caught between a rock and a hard place if this is the case. And the prosecutor in this case is an asshole - sure, it's the employee that starts up the truck, but he's likely doing it according to the schedule his employer has set.

[Gravekeeper]

This blows my mind. What is the employee supposed to do if they know the bylaws prohibit him from starting the garbage pick up prior to 7am but the employer tells him that he has to be out on the streets earlier or risks losing his job?

We don't know if that's the case. The employee hasn't offered any sort of explanation or defence aside from just saying it was his first offence.

[Andara Bledin]

This blows my mind. What is the employee supposed to do if they know the bylaws prohibit him from starting the garbage pick up prior to 7am but the employer tells him that he has to be out on the streets earlier or risks losing his job? They're caught between a rock and a hard place if this is the case. And the prosecutor in this case is an asshole - sure, it's the employee that starts up the truck, but he's likely doing it according to the schedule his employer has set.

I'm fairly certain that you can bring suit against any employer that fires you for refusing to break the law.

Of course, that means you have to a) know what the law is and b) actually refuse to break said law.

I know there's a few things I've refused to do because of the law, and upon being educated, my bosses have backed down. But then, my bosses are reasonable individuals who don't actually want to be breaking the law, themselves.

[Rageaholic]

Because, you should totally expect your boss to give you orders to do something illegal... >_>

I'm absolutely sure that you've investigated every order you've ever received for legality, right?

Yeah, that's why I take issue with "ignorance of the law is no excuse" in cases like this. It's saying that you have to investigate everything to be sure what you're doing is legal. Not everything is as obvious as murder and theft are wrong. And there are grey areas.

Good to see they suspended the sentence. Even if this was a problem, jailing shouldn't be the solution.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm thinking, that at this point, the obvious and chronic breaking of this law despite multiple fines is rising to the level of contempt of court. We just need a judge who will go beyond the regular fines and start adding compounding to them to show that, eventually, they will have to shape up or run out of money.