I asked my director if I was entitled to pension-Fired!?

Question

I asked my director if was I entitled to a company pension similiar to what the other staff have.
Two days later he called me into the office, and replied "You offended me", and sent me home.
Can someone please tell me how he found that question offensive?
Here is some background; I was the lowest paid - clerical at $25,000 a year, all other were paid $50,000 and up, (professional workers).
I worked with them for 7 years.
I was apparently an important part of their organization
until it came to benefits.
He once asked me where I was am from, I said "born here in this country", he said YAH "but where are you from?".

The labour board determined I was an employee and compensated me for several years of vacation owed.

I am still devastasted almost 2 years later.

1) What was offensive about my question?
2) Was his remark racist? power issues? Ego? Greed?
Can someone tell me what was going on in his head?
Imagine, I suggested to him to apply for director job 3 year ago

The director acted as though he was a boss of a for profit business - which is good for a taxpayer, but really he was the director in organization funded only by government money, not his company to count pennys yet attained $65,000 a year. Of course when the odd bonus came out the less employees the bigger the pot of money.

Answer 1

What a jerk that guy was! You should have sued for wrongful termination. You offended him? What the heck is he talking about? And what's up with you working there for 7 years and only making half of what everyone else was making?! Geez, that makes me mad. I hope you find another job that has people who respect you and pay you what you deserve. Stand up for yourself! Good luck!

Answer 2

Sounds like you hit it on the head. They didn't want to have to pay for more benefits. Employee compensation, both pay and benefits, are the most expensive part of running a business. Anything they have to pay an employee has an impact on their bottom line.

You could have sued for wrongful termination based on the events as you have explained them. I don't know if you can still do that 2 years later. It will definitely be harder. Hopefully you have a better job now anyway.

My suggestion would be that you are probably better of anyway. They were probably looking for a way to get rid of you anyway. Rather than lay you off, they chose to do it this way.

Answer 3

Wrongful termination suit! If you have performing well and have done nothing wrong and he fires you for asking that question, SUE! Companies go through a long process before they actually "fire" someone, because they are all afraid of wrongful trmination suits. If this company has no record of your bad performance and fires you because of your question you have a really good case.