I work for a housekeeping company, small and local, employs about 17 girls. when we are hired we are sign a confidentially and no soliciting (no house pirating) contract. no problem. Well I was called into the office and was very reprimanded about soliciting a customer, didnt kno what the heck the Boss was talking about. for 13 yrs for working for him I've never stole a house/customer. well come to find out that a customer had asked me to take him to the Dr. appt, since he is going blind, on my day off, I said sure no problem, he wanted to offer me $20 bucks and the deal was confirmed. Well the day i was going to pick him up, the customer panicked thinking I was going to be late and calls my Boss, asking where I am, shes suppose to be here to drive me to Dr. I did arrive on time specified but this got Boss very upset and the next day we verbally was going back and forth.
Boss was going on about, what if we get into a car accident the customer is gonna try a sue him, or a cater job, what if i spill hot coffee on some one or break an heirloom plate and on and on. He demanded that I tell him heads up on our days off of all encounters from our customer from picking up a couch that the customer wants to rid of to washing customers car. Boss said if it weren't for him placing us with that certain client we would of never get moonlighting jobs. Its his customer leave them alone. I think its all about the money I feel, which isn't much.
My question is, is Boss right about the liability issue? This was a new concept of the old contract I signed many years ago. We had many job offers like catering or organizing on the side which he knew but never mentioned about being sued. Boss said this applied way back in the day, which I disagreed heavily. I told him its none of his business what I do on my days off and with who, my bad?
I feel my loyalty of 13 yrs mean nothing.
Not an attorney so this is just based on a couple law classes. If someone asks you to take a job that is outside the scope of your job and contracts directly with you, and the job is not performed while you are on the clock for your employer he has no liability.
I'm not an attorney but I would think if you are on your day off and using your personal vehicle, he has no say in this. It's not like you took anything away from your boss or the company you work for. Basically you were doing a favor for an friend.
Look at it this way if you were volunteering for a charity on your day off and a fellow volunteer needed a ride home and offered you gas money, would your boss have gotten so upset?
You did a very nice thing for an elderly man, focus on that.
One problem here is that no matter what the potential outcome of a lawsuit, anyone can S. anyone for any reason. So a client could S. your boss, even if there is not a legal basis for that suit. Then your boss would have to defend himself in court, which costs time and money. Sadly, some people S. companies, who wouldn't probably S. a person, because they feel the company "has money".
It is definitely simpler for him if you all say "I'm sorry, but my contract with company X says I am not able to take side jobs from their clients".
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I would just make sure that when you agree to 'moonlight' you make it VERY CLEAR that you are doing this as an individual, not as an employee of the housekeeping company. Maybe even come up with some 'release' waivers or something that you can sign taking all responsibility for anything that happens outside of your regular job.
When I worked as a Home Health Aide I couldn't even give a member of my church a ride to church. If I had an accident with her in the car she could sue the company I work for. It did not matter that I was not on the clock or doing something related to work. It is a part of our contract, only certain services are contracted for. You cannot go outside of that agreement at all. You could have talked to your boss about the issue to see if he has any suggestions but even if you helped arrange a ride for him your company could be held liable. The man could always lie and say he thought it was a work related service and the driver an employee on the clock.
Because so many people have sued over every little thing many companies have to be more than normally diligent as for liability.
I also carried personal liability insurance during my time as a board member in the community and working in child care. It pays to have that insurance just in case.
