Workplace terminates three employees late for work due to being volunteer firemen

Vody plumbing has fired three plumbers when they failed to show up for work this morning at 8am. When the plumbers did arrive just before lunch they were given termination paper work and their final paychecks. The three plumbers were late due to responding to as volunteer firefighters to an early morning structure fire.

The fire department was paged out at about 5am to a fire at the sunrise apartment complex. Fire crews arrived to find multiple apartment units on the second floor of the building fully involved. Other apartment units and common hallway areas were also affected by flame.

Lee Thornton, one of the fired plumbers, called his employer while responding to the scene. “I could tell by the radio traffic that this was a real structure fire. Police were on scene and calling information in on what they saw. So I called the office voice mail to tell the boss we would be late.”

Dan Lane, also one of the plumbers fired, said this. “Up until this point we always made sure to make up all the hours we missed. We know if our plumbing job has to be done it has to be done. We work commercial construction jobs, so if we don’t finish then the electricians and finish carpenters can’t get in to do their work. If we have a day time fire call I always go in that same night to get my work done.”

The owner, Cody Vody, said he was fed up with how these three abuse his generosity in giving them off time. “They are always asking for time to go to some training class, or to go do fire prevention in the schools. They ask in advance so I am able to schedule it. I am ok with scheduling it in advance. When I know in advance I can let other contractors know what is going on and when to expect specific things done. But all these unscheduled fires and unscheduled car crashes are getting to be too much. If they want to keep doing both jobs they need to let me know when they will need to respond in advance so I can schedule these things.”

The three firefighter/plumbers told us they have contacted an attorney.