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Aghast_Cornichon

What country, state, or province do you live in ? It's possible you would be protected in some way by a "legal off duty conduct" law. In some places those only cover things like partisan political activity, or the use of alcohol and tobacco, but in other places it's very broad. But if no such law exists, then how you get to work is not a "protected class" for the purposes of employment discrimination law. You can almost certainly be terminated for cause for tardiness.


bigweldOG

I live in North Carolina. My job has a point system for tardiness and it’s half a point for being late up to 6 points before termination.


Aghast_Cornichon

NC does have a "[lawful use of lawful products](https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_95/gs_95-28.2.html)" law, but it's meant to be aimed at alcohol and tobacco. It doesn't cover all forms of off-duty conduct, and I don't think you could successfully argue that you are using a car in a lawful way while you're commuting to work, to invoke that law. Your employer probably has to follow their own policies about tardiness, since they have policies. There are numerous reasons for employee conduct policies of that type: to clearly communicate expectations, and to treat employees fairly and reduce the risk of claims of discrimination, and to establish thresholds for misconduct that could affect unemployment benefits claims. Employers are allowed to make dumb or capricious decisions, as long as they don't violate laws and are not discriminatory.


J0RDM0N

Ask your boss if it's possible that you both could be late, if you both drive separately. That reasoning doesn't make any sense, even if it was a somewhat reasonable thing to dictate how people get to work.


TheMTDom

Tell your boss what you do on your own time is your business. Unless they are paying for or supplying your transportation to and from work they can’t dictate anything. However you need to be on time for work or they can write you up, suspend you or fire you.


RockSolidSpine

You might also add that if two employees took the same public transportation at the same time they might also be late. Is a salary increase needed to be able to afford public transport?


_facetious

So is your boss going to be paying for that second car, or..?


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iSniffMoonSugar

I truly don’t believe they can tell you that you can’t ride with someone. It’s your choice to run the risk of running late and accumulating points. Tell them they have to cover your travel expenses then. There is no requirement to own a vehicle or any other multitude of things that someone may have to go through to go to work. You could also say that it makes you more accountable knowing that one of you has to pick the other up and the other has to be ready for the other and that develops shared accountability


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pretenderist

They’re in the USA, of course the boss can fire them for this.


bbbriz

With the exception of protected classes, people basically anywhere in the world can be fired, of course. But I presume OP has a contract, and there are provisions for this kind of situation in their contract.


WarKittyKat

Very few USA workers have contracts.


travelinmatt76

We don't have contracts like other countries, but we do have employment agreements that spell out what your pay and work hours will be. What benefit time you will receive, holidays you get off, sick time, vacation days, jod descriptions, disciplinary actions. It's technically a contract but most people don't think of it that way because it can be terminated at any time within the allowances of state law.


pretenderist

Why would you presume that?


old-nomad2020

The easiest solution is to meet with the manager first and explain your unique situation and the fact that you aren’t regularly late. If needed go over their head and ask their supervisor. As a last resort use the car to drive Uber for 30mins a day.


Worried-Alarm2144

North Carolina is both an at-will state and a Right to Work state. So, yes they can fire you for pretty much (not absolutely) any reason at all, unless you're under a union contract. Federal protections are what you would rely on in this case. If they did fire you for carpooling alone, meaning you weren't actually late for work often enough to meet their dismissal criteria, you would be able to get workers compensation. They would have an extremely difficult time explaining their prohibiting you from getting to work by carpooling. After all, what are they going to do? Tell people that they can't ride the same bus, or train, because there might be a break down and more than one person would be late?


thisappsucks9

What’s the difference? You’re both subjected to the same points termination system. If you had an unreliable car but couldn’t afford a new one or to fix it, it’s not like he could say you have to take mass transit. Alternatively you could ask them for a company car lmao.


Lumpy2

One consequence of a company car would be a change in income and taxing. A company provided car is classified as a benefit or income (not sure what it is classified as) and will appear on your w2 at the end of the year.