Legal aid kept him ‘truckin

Telegram & Gazette

June 5, 2013

 

AS I SEE IT

 

By Randy Haley 

 

Driving around New England with 35 tons of stone and sand behind you isn’t an easy way to make a living. I know, because I’ve spent my entire career doing it. In fact, I’ve been around trucks my whole life. It’s the only work I know, and it supports my wife and our teenage son in our modest apartment in Dudley. 

 

Or at least it did until last year, when I found out that no matter how many runs I did behind the wheel, I couldn’t make decent pay. I was working 60 or 70 hours in a week, but my employer only paid me for the time I was driving a loaded truck. All the paperwork and all the mandatory safety checks I had to do were on my own time. I didn’t get paid for any of it, and all the money I was losing meant I could no longer support my family. 

 

One day, I just couldn’t take it any more. I called in to report for duty and was told to drive an empty truck nearly an hour from Chelmsford to Watertown, pick up a load, and drive it to Littleton. I asked my boss, “Are you going to pay me for the empty run to Watertown?” 

 

“No,” he told me. “You know how it is.” 

 

When I told him I wouldn’t drive for free, he told me to turn in my things. I assumed I was fired, so I did what he said. 

 

I was shocked when I received a letter telling me my unemployment claim had been denied. 

 

I didn’t know what to do. Eventually I noticed that the denial letter mentioned I might be able to qualify for free legal help to contest my denial of unemployment insurance. I called the number listed, and I was referred to Melissa Pomfred, a lawyer at Community Legal Aid in Worcester. 

 

Melissa took my case, steered me through the legal system and state bureaucracy, and convinced the state that I was eligible for unemployment insurance. 

 

I didn’t need unemployment for long, because I soon found a new trucking job. But after working for a few months, my new employer was even worse than the first one. This time, not only did my wallet stay empty when I was doing paperwork or inspections, but I was even told that I was overpaid. My boss told me that if I didn’t like the way he was doing things, I could hit the unemployment line. 

 

So I found myself applying for unemployment insurance again, and once again I was denied. With no income, my landlord threatened to throw me and my family out of our apartment. I had to borrow money from my sister to pay my rent. 

 

I turned to legal aid again. Just like she did with the first denial, Melissa helped me overturn this one. With the unemployment insurance coming in, I paid back the money I owed my sister, and was able to stay in my apartment. 

 

After 10 weeks of searching, I was lucky to find a third trucking job. It’s a good job; the owners of the company think the world of me. They pay me a living wage and provide health insurance, something my previous two employers never offered. But those unemployment checks were the only thing keeping me afloat in between jobs. I was down and out, and the well had run dry. I had never given much thought to civil legal aid before, but today am a strong advocate. 

 

I know that without Melissa’s help, I would have lost everything, and my wife and son and I would have been on the street. Melissa did one hell of a job for me — twice. 

 

Randy Haley is a resident of Dudley.

 

“Melissa took my case, steered me through the legal system and state bureaucracy, and convinced the state that I was eligible for unemployment insurance.”