Towing Issues: Damage payment, repair plates, toyota corolla

Question
Hello.. I work in massachusetts for a 3A/local/state police towing facility. I had an incedent a few weeks ago involving a car that got damaged on my hook because my flatbed left me out in a bad spot on the highway with a 05 toyota corolla w/ a rear flat tire. I hooked and chained it.. and it still got damaged..... $1500.00 worth.... so my question to you is:
Can my boss make me pay the 1500.00 in damage when he has cargo insurance on the repair plates..... or is it illegal. This is the first time I am being told to take $$ out of my check... as it is slow and being on commission.. is this allowed under Massachsuetts law or am i getting screwed and need to laywer up??? thank you for your time.

Mark Milliken

Answer
I can not answer this question when it deals with Massachusetts labor laws as I have no way to really research that part of the law.  That stuff changes almost daily..

Now as a "General rule" a lot of tow companies do tend to make the driver somewhat responsible for any damages and such.. Kind of a industry practice, but there are lots of issues which can come into play...

As to if it is legal to withhold money for damages, that again goes back to the laws, but I would think that the tow company insurance would try to take care of it, but again that will cause a "loss record" on his policy, and of course that will lead to increased premiums...
Now he might not of reported the damage to his insurance company and is trying to keep his costs low.

But still I do not know what kind of "damage" happened during the tow...

When you are dealing with small vehicles which do have some low parts, and you add in a flat tire and a flat bed, it does increase the chances for damage to happen...  
Training and or proper equipment is one way to keep this from happening. But I am not saying you do not know how to do the job, but there are dozens of little tricks which can help, and no one knows all of them.

One thing to keep in mind also about this and the withholding of money from your check, is that as a rule your employer would need a "signed authorization" from you for each deduction being done for damages... If you damage 2 cars, you would need 2 signed authorizations.



Hope this helps but I would check with a lawyer or the labor bureau on this.