Can they fire me if I won't do things beyond my job description?

Question

I work at a new facility, and I was hired for a specific job which requires four years of college. In the healthcare field. And after I had been working at this facility for a month, they approached me and told me I had to take my own car and drive to other facilities to drop off specimens. The rumor was that anyone refusing would be fired. We complained because our car insurance would not cover us if we crashed (and this is during the over-night hours when you're tired, and there are drunks on the road, in a high crime city area). So now they gave us a company van and told us it would only be temporary that we would have to do this. But once again the story has changed and they are not hiring full time curriers or hiring on site staff to examine the speimens instead of taking them to other facilities.
My issue being that the bad weather months are approaching, and if there is a storm or icy roads, and I refuse to take these runs, can they fire me? i feel like i'm being used.

you see, driving around is not an issue for me, and trust me this is not the only job that I am doing that is beyond my scope of practice. But this is the one that is life threatening. They are having us driving into a VERY high crime rate city at 3 or 4 in the morning with no protection or escort. The only ones taht have to do this happen to be females. AND one is pregnant. Would you be ok with sending your wife out at 4 am in the city by themselves?
And with this place being a new facility, I dont think I even have a written job description. what do I do about that?

in response to the question regarding my car being in the shop...

yeah, we've been asking ourselves the same question. But now since we are using the company van, its not really an issue.

Its more about the safety for me, I feel so uncomfortable walking around through these parking lots at night, by myself. Its so risky.

Answer 1

I stopped reading the other posts because they became obnoxious and foolish....

If you were involved in an accident while on the clock, and you were in your personal vehicle, not only could the other injured party sue you, but they will also sue your employer. YOU could sue your employer as well! While it is not illegal for your employer to alter job descriptions, requiring you to utilize your own equipment, in my opinion, is unethical. That being said, if you choose to stay working for this company, you need to maintain stringent driving logs: you can deduct all expenses incurred using your vehicle for company time.

Not knowing the structure of your company, or where you are obtaining your information, I would suggest the following: Inform you highest official of the liability being incurred by the company: as far as you know, a middlie-manager may have imposed this to hide numbers. I WOULD NOT SUGGEST YOU DO IT PERSONALLY OR IN ANY WAY THAT MAY BE TRACED TO YOU; YOU ARE PUTTING YOUR JOB ON THE LINE. An anonymous letter to the CFO/CEO voicing your concerns should be sufficient. Who knows? You MAY be exposing some illegal activity within your company: as mentioned before, middle-management will sometimes do these types of things to hide embezzlement practices.

If nothing transpires as a result of this, then management is making their statement; they'll take the risk. You can either make yourself unavailable, "Sorry, carpooled in today!", or look for a more reputable facility.

Answer 2

There are several issues here.

1. It is tough to fire a person if they are doing the job they were hired for.

2. Most job descriptions include the line 'other duties as assinged' to cover exactly this sort of issue- so it becomes part of your job.

3. Refusal to help the company is certainly not going to help you in other parts of the job, and they can fire you for other reasons- especially during your probation.

4. Your positive, helpful, 'can do' attitude is your most valuable skill to the company. Don't lose it over something like this.

5. It seems to me you guys are not thinking about this correctly. If the company is trying to save money by cutting back in one area (couriers), that SHOULD mean you guys can ask for a raise since you are doing additional duties.

If you use your own car, you should be able to get mileage out of the deal- and mileage payments are supposed to cover the insurance bump you get.

After doing this for a while, cheerfully and efficently, you should be able to approach the bosses and explain that you would be happy to continue doing the new job, but that the additional skills and duties necessary would seem to justify additional pay.

6. As for bad weather, you should help your office develop a written bad weather delivery policy. A common policy is that there is no driving during storm warnings or in severe weather, and that driving in poor conditions driving is voluntary (usually with a cash bonus for drivers).

HOWEVER- here is where the earlier pay raise can bite you. If you get additional pay for driving, then you sort of need to drive.

Answer 3

The employer is within its rights to change the job description, hours, rate of pay, title, and other employment-related info at any time, for any reason or for no reason.

However, the employer also has an obligation to provide a safe working environment for its employees. If someone were to get mugged or raped while making these courier runs, the company would almost certainly be found guilty of negligence in this area. Just FYI, if you are traveling on company business you are covered by worker's comp insurance.)

If you have an HR department, express your concerns to them and see if changes can be made. If not, I suggest you approach management as a group to discuss your concerns - there is safety in numbers, and they can't fire all of you without harming the business in the short term.

Answer 4

A company can fire you because they don't like the color of socks you're wearing. There are certain federal/state regulations that govern the workplace, but most have to do with wages and occupational safety.

Outside of that, your only recourse is a civil dispute. If you have a contract, it spells out your basic job, but unless you're a very specialized professional, it's unlikely that you're covered in this case.

If you belong to a union, then the union contract will spell out the conditions of the job and a steward can handle it for you. Sounds like this is not your case.

Basically, you could sue for wrongful termination, but it's costly, lengthy, and most of the burden is on you to prove it. Not likely as income tax forms allows you to deduct certain business expenses, such as mileage in your personal car on company business. As you said, your personal auto insurance won't cover you on business, but you're not the sole litigant in the case of an accident. In other words, even though it's your personal car, you are acting as an agent of the company. Which means if someone else is hurt in an accident, they can sue the company for damages. Pretty risky for the company.

Just curious, what happens if your car was in the repair shop for a week or so, and you were taking the bus to work? Would your job be in jeopardy?

Answer 5

You can quit for any reason, they can fire you for any reason, unless you have a contract or a union. What they're doing puts you at risk for a personal lawsuit, and that alone raises red flags to me. Personally, I would talk to my lawyer and ask about the legality of such a practice. At the very least, do some research. Since you're working in the health care field, such a practice could be in violation of any number of sanitary, safety, or privacy laws. Also, they could very easily be violating one of the insurance companies' policies, so I would look into that. Then, like some above said, you could send an anonymous letter to a CEO or someone like that and be a whistle blower, so to speak. Barring all that: get your ducks in a row and get out of there. What they're doing sounds pretty outrageous and unethical to me, and my family is full of textile workers.

Answer 6

Nice company, lets see this though. You are currently being paid a good monetary amount, and are complaining that you have to do an easier job and get paid the same. Not a lot of jobs out there and people would line up for your job right? Man as an employer I have to deal with people all the time complaining that that isnt my job. Ask yourself this and maybe another question. What happens if no one does this work? Why am i to good to do it? If you should get in an accident wont you be able to stay home at your companies expense? Good luck and in your job description it probably states: perform other duties as assigned, at least if your employer was smart enough to put it in there.

Answer 7

Your relationship with your previous employer is privileged. Even your previous employer does not have a right to go around tellin evreybody that they should not employ you because s/he fired you. You have a right not to disclose everything in an interview especielly if its not asked. If the interviewer fails to ask you and he discoveres it later he does not have a right to fire you as he did not ask you the question and you were not under any legal obligation to answer it. However if you are being asked about your previous employer it is crucial that you give a concise and innocent answer. Because if you lie and your employer discovers later that you gave a false answer, he will have a right to fire you. So if you are asked about your previous employer you have to tell the truth, but you need to be cretive in saying it...just put it in a possitive manner so that the interviewer may not be infuenced by the fact that you have been fired.

Answer 8

Why do you want them to hire couriers? You don't state in your description that your salary-exempt and have no time to spare from your daily duties. Is the company just trying to maximize efficiency by matching an additional job responsibility with some non productive time you may have? Your attitude about this additional duty is really transparent and you are going to need to temper that frustration or your chances for promotion within this company or the next will be limited.

Answer 9

Look at your job description, usually the last line. If it says, and other related duties. You get the jist, then yes they can fire you. If they require you to use your car, you have the right to request mileage compensation, at least here in NC. If you are in employ of a business and are using your car as required by your employer, they can be held liable for any accident you are in, while preforming your job....

Answer 10

Unfortunately, yes, an employer has the right to change a job description, and can and will fire you for not abiding by it. This info may help in regards to using your own car on the job: http://www.griffincom.com/200499c.pdf