Ethos Risk Services Ethos Risk, ethos, Ed Cotilla, Todd petrie Fraud, violated labor laws, cheated, failed to pay St. Petersburg Florida

This company violates federal labor laws. They do not pay over-time, they do not pay for part of your travel and will not pay you for time worked on updates/video upload/reports.

I was hired by this company and it took them over a month to assign my first file. That should have been my first clue how disorganized this company is. The second clue was when there was absolutely no training. I mean none! They "train" you to use their system & how updates/reports should be worded along with how to enter time on their payroll system with videos attached to emails. The tutorial videos could rival the 'Blair Witch Project' the camera is shaking so bad along with poor video quality that barely allows you to see what they are attempting to show you. Finally, when contacting the IT dept. You are told that they have Apple computers & can't hep with window's problems that their software & management system creates. Truly, the most disorganized HR & IT departments I ever dealt with.

When hired, I was told several things by the recruiter that were all lies. In signing the contract, there was nothing in the contract that led me to believe anything other than what the recruiter had told me. My first couple of files I was paid what I was owed. My first paycheck was fine. Then I noticed a major amount of pay was missing from my next two checks. I questioned my case manager about this. Even got the guy to admit it was a vague & bad policy, as written in the company manual and that needed to be changed, via text message (this would help me out later as you will read). However, I was informed they decided they would cap my maximum daily mileage reimbursement at $60 a day. There were days I should have received $150 in mileage, alone. They, then, used a fancy little formula to convert the rest of the money they owed me for mileage from a non-taxable reimbursement to pay that was taxable! Yes, you read that right. They didn't pay me mileage reimbursement but somehow added time to my travel hours that was taxable but didn't count towards overtime. Makes sense, huh?

Only time on-site coined towards overtime not travel or administrative time. Then they took away hours that it took me to do daily updates and video uploads along with case report times. They told me after working there that they only pay a half hour for a 4 hour surveillance & one hour for an 8 surveillance for the update, video upload and report. Most days this process took 2-3 hours a day because of the incompetent way they required the video to upload. Then they told me travel time and administrative time did not count towards over-time on top of the fact that they expect me to travel 1.5 hours each way, 3 hours round trip daily, as part of my "commute" to work. On top of this they refused to reimburse me for a hotel because I did not get permission from my case manager before traveling over 3 hours out of my home area for a 6 AM surveillance. There were still discrepancies in my pay from what my case manager had verbally informed me what the "new" rules were. I brought this up to the manager & HR in an email, that has yet to be responded to.

Needless to say I have contacted my state's labor department. An investigation has been launched into their company & the labor dept. is assisting me in obtaining my missing pay for not paying overtime (which includes not paying for travel that counted towards overtime) and taking hours away for hours worked on updates/reports/video. Unfortunately, I will not get my mileage reimbursement back that was capped at $60 a day. They basically stole over $600 from me there and it would require civil litigation to get this money back and as many of you know retaining an attorney would cost me that much that I would back just for the mileage. With that being said, it will be worth every penny spent to get my money back from these con-artists.

These people had no intention of using me for more than a couple of weeks to fill a client's need in my general area. I believe their plan was to use me until I complained about being ripped off or the work ran out in the area. I hope more people affected by this company will post their experiences so this company won't get away with this with anyone else.