couldnt work overtime?

Question

Most of the co-workers , supervisor and boss for the company I work for don’t like me. The place that I work for has a lot of people that don’t like my kind of race. I mean no problem with that you don’t have to like my race if you don’t want to. It is a free country. But every morning I work from 5am-3:30pm on a normal day. First two hours are overtime. Sometimes I have stuff to do and a family to take care of at times. So I cant "always" stay after 3:30, they tell me if "I" don’t work overtime. I will lose my job and don’t have one. But a lot of other co-workers don’t work overtime either, they go home when their regular day is over. And they still have their job. I know they are just waiting to get rid of me. I mean I know that they don’t like my race. But that isn’t right for them to get rid of me because of it. But if they do fire me, it is a At Will State. They can fire you regardless. They can give you a reason or not. What is a way a can prove they fired me because of my race? I mean being the only kind of race there and them firing me because I couldn’t work overtime a few times. But other workers there in the same crew that I am, don’t work overtime at all. And they don’t fire him, and I do more work than him. Could that be proof. I don’t see this as fair or right. What can I do

Answer 1

Do you belong to a union? If you can't work overtime, they can't force you to. You may want to beat them to the punch by looking for a new job soon, then one day when they ask you to do OT, give your 2 week notice.

You may also want to contact a labor lawyer or your state's labor insurance dept to see what your rights as an employee are.

Answer 2

A. Talk to a lawyer (willing to work on contingency)

Despite what some caucasians say EEO is the hardest case to win. It is relatively easy to file though. The reason is that in EEO, you have to prove motive. In a criminal case you have to prove event. Its harder to prove what someone is thinking, especially if they do not scream out racial slurs (and for some reason it is tapes) Your case is provable. If they write down that you were fired because you would not work overtime. You go to the lawyer and he would ask for the time card of all the workers in your area. If the timecards shows that certain other employees work less overtime than you. The company has to explain why. In an at will state, I believe you HAVE to show that those who were retained, but did not do overtime was of a different race, culture, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex and in some states sexual orientation. If you can't do overtime because of caring of family, I think that there might be cause for action too. It depends on the state. I was told in California that firing an individual because of child care is severly frowned upon, even though it was not written in stone.

Answer 3

You seem to be very fixated with "my kind of race". They may not be happy with you because it appears that you may not be a "team player" rather than your race. It is VERY important in ANY job that you appear to be willing to do whatever is required to do the job right. If that means sometimes working overtime then so be it .. you may need to adjust your life to work the extra hour or two to do it if that is what the job requires.

If they fire you it is NOT going to be for any other reason than the fact that you are not doing what the job requires .. otherwise WHY would they need to get rid of you? I run a business and let me tell you ANY person who I have who does a great job and is a team player is a VALUABLE employee, no matter what their race. Get rid of the chip on your shoulder about your "race" and do a good job, be a team player and I can assure you you will have that job FOREVER if you want it..

Good luck with your future..