Carson City Harley-Davidson employees not paid, told to file for unemployment
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Mon, 11/23/2015 - 2:39pm
Carson City Harley Davidson was closed last week with employees not receiving their paychecks Friday and told they could file for unemployment insurance, Carson Now has learned. When contacted Monday, the owner of the motorcycle facility on Research Way said the business will open Tuesday and that all the employees will be paid.
Multiple phone calls to the Carson City Harley-Davidson facility went unanswered this weekend. A sign in the window said: “Due to a system-wide outage we are currently closed. We will be extending the contest an additional week. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
A person who said she worked for Harley-Davidson’s voice answering service from out of the area said the store should be opened Tuesday, while a customer service agent at Harley-Davidson’s corporate office said some customers have called saying the store is closed, with a sign in the window saying there is a system outage.
Employees said they were told by text message not to come into work last week. On Friday, many did not receive their paychecks for the pay period they worked.
Harley-Davidson owner Richard Tapia said the facility will be open Tuesday and that the employees were not paid due to a “technicality with timing" and that he gave employees the option to file for unemployment while he was waiting on court documents to be signed.
“I didn’t want to hold anybody back because I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” he said. “I had to settle everything first. Those who wanted to go to unemployment, we gave them the opportunity."
He said his main concern now is to "make good with our employees. We’ve had little to no turnover. We have to make sure they are taken care of in a timely manner.”
Tapia declined to discuss what kind of court documents he had been waiting on. He said as of Monday they had been signed and he was waiting to see the document for himself. He then abruptly ended the interview.
On Friday night a woman outside the business who identified herself as “store security” said she was unable to answer questions about the store being closed. When asked about employees not getting their paychecks Friday she said she could not disclose any information.
On Saturday morning, a group of riders with the Christian Motorcylists Association had plans to hold a regular meeting at the Harley-Davidson facility but were informed it was closed. The association members went to Grandma Hatties for the meeting instead.
A mechanic from Carson City Harley Davidson, Craig Tooley, said he was told not to come into work last week, noting he received multiple text messages from his supervisor advising of the work situation. On Friday he received a text message from his supervisor that states: “We are all laid off temporarily. They will be bringing me filing applications. If you need one let me know. Still checking on paychecks for the last pay period.”
Tooley said that at least six people in the service department that he has contacted said they had not gotten their paychecks as of Monday. He also said everyone in the service department got the same text as he did.
As of Monday Tooley has not received a paycheck, which was due in his direct deposit account Friday. Tooley said he doesn’t want his job back because of what has happened.
Tooley said he has worked at the Carson City facility for 2.5 years and has never not gotten paid. He said he is angry at Tapia for not only withholding his own paycheck before Thanksgiving but other employees as well. He also said withholding employees paychecks because a pending court decision is a "shady business practice" and that he no longer wants anything to do with Carson City Harley-Davidson. He said he is also concerned he will be unable to get his shop tools back.
“Those tools are my livelihood. I want my tools, I want my last paycheck and I am done,” he said. “It is less than a week before Thanksgiving. We are all paycheck-to-paycheck employees and we are told we are temporarily laid off? My question is, what is temporarily? A week, a month, next spring, what? I wouldn’t have been as near as upset if he would have handed everyone their checks Friday but he didn’t do that. There are people who count on their checks to make payments, to feed their families.”
Tooley said he believes the facility was closed is due to an issue between Tapia and Harley-Davidson corporate office.
“This is hearsay and not evidence but I have heard enough to know that it was bad enough and that they were in court last week because of it,” said Tooley.
The store is scheduled to open at 9 a.m. Tuesday. It’s regular days of operation are Tuesday through Sunday.
