unjustly fired?

Question

yesterday i was fired from my part time job at a bookstore. the reason that was given was that i was a few minutes late three days in the past two weeks and that i called in sick twice in the past two weeks. i have been dealing with many health problems lately including depression and a neck injury and had valid reasons for my absences. i offered to get doctors notes verifying my absences but i was not taken seriously. also, the enforcement of their policies is not equal. i know of employees who have worked there for a long time and flout the rules regularly and have not been reprimanded. i told thisto my manager and she said that many people have been reprimanded and fired in the past few monthes but that its not made public so i would have no way of knowing. but i have spoken to current and former employees who say differently.
what would you advise doing? i don't want to continue working there after the way i've been treated. could any legal action be pursued?

also, i am a poor college student and have no way to finance a legal campaign. are there any organizations that help people in my situation? can i apply for wellfare or workers comp since i've been fired?

for those people who are implying that i have a poor work ethic... i was A FEW minutes late, as in less than 10 minutes. in the morning. when there are usually ZERO customers. and at least 10 people on registers. all of whom are doing absolutely nothing. many of whom come in late as well. and as far as i am aware having a neck injury that prevents movement is not something that i willingly aquired.

Answer 1

If your a student, your students union may help you out?

Unless you have a contract stating otherwise, if the employer wishes to dismiss you, or the you wish to quit, one weeks notice must be given.
If they do not wish you to work, they much still give you one weeks full pay.
From what youve been saying, there is some equality issues too, and as far as i know turning up a few minutes late is not grounds for a dismissal.

You could contact a solicitor? Many give free consultations about cases such as this. But first, i would phone or speak to the manager about the book store first, and inform them you intend to seek legal action. They may seek a compromise first, because if they loose the case, they have to pay all the legal fees.
You could also offer to seek arbitration to the employer, its a free method but both partys must agree first.

You could find the phone number for a Law firm in the yellow pages, you can organize an appointment with a solicitor, and you can work on it from there :)

Answer 2

Let's sort out a few things...first, although it may be true that the store is not busy and/or overstaffed first thing in the morning, it is not your job to set the hours of work. That is your boss's job, and s/he must enforce those hours and discipline employees who do not adhere to them.

All employees must be treated equally in terms of disciplinary actions. It is not OK for one person to be late all the time while another gets written up for the same behavior. However, we live in the real world, and the boss's kid will probably always be allowed to slide while the rest of us have to toe the line. Because disciplinary actions are confidential, it's unlikely that you will really know what has transpired with others.

The agencies that can assist you, for free, are www.dol.gov and www.eeoc.gov. However, since you were terminated for violating a company policy, it will be very difficult for you to pursue a wrongful term claim.

The only saving grace is that if you do indeed have health issues which prevent you from working, you may be eligible for FMLA leave. However, that law applies only to employees who work a certain number of hours, so if you were a part-timer, you may not meet the requirements. (www.dol.gov has more on this, too.) If you DO meet the requirements, your employer must offer you up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off.

Good luck.

Answer 3

You cannot pursue any legal action against the company because they had justification for firing you. Coming in late and calling out a lot puts your co workers in a bind. They have to have someone else to do your job. If you had medical reasons why you could not be at work then you should have brought in a note from the doctor upon returning to work, not when the problem was brought up. Take this as a learning experience. Next time get a doctors note for every day out and don't be late.

Answer 4

Since you were terminated, you do not need to be concerned with working for this store. Unfortunately, and without any negative implications about you, attendance - punctuality - tardiness are very important issues to employers. Even when an employee has totally legitimate medical reasons for missing time, the law recognizes that an employer can legally terminate for not following attendance policies.

Under both federal and state human rights laws an 'at will' employee can be fired for any reason except discrimination. Discrimination bases are defined by the EEOC at www.eeoc.gov, as actions based on age (over 40), sex, race, ethnic origin, nationality, color, disability, religion, military or marital status. If you believe that your employer treated you differently due to discrimination, you can file a complaint with the EEOC.

FYI if you allege discrimination by disability, the EEOC will want to see a copy of the notice to the employer by your doctor and the request for accommodations.

From what you listed in this post it does not sound like discrimination, however, the only way to know for sure is to speak with a local employment attorney -- many do not charge for an initial interview.

Answer 5

No you weren't unjustly fired. At-will employment is a doctrine of yankee regulation that defines an employment relationship wherein the two occasion can ruin the relationship devoid of felony duty, presented there became into no exhibit settlement for a diverse term governing the employment relationship and that the organization does no longer belong to a collective bargaining team (i.e., has no longer known a union). decrease than this felony doctrine: “any hiring is presumed to be "at will"; it is, the organization is loose to discharge persons "for solid reason, or undesirable reason, or no reason in any respect," and the worker is the two loose to end, strike, or in any different case give up artwork. Your supervisor did no longer ruin any regulations by terminating your employment. in keeping with danger you are able to learn from this adventure that even nevertheless it is united states of america of america there are nevertheless issues that should not be published on twitter or fb. Freedom of speech does no longer assure you persisted employment. it rather is available that your criticism became into no longer liked and that they desperate to permit you go. in spite of why they desperate to fire you, you weren't unjustly fired.

Answer 6

You don't say where you live, but most states have "employment at will" laws that state that employees can be let go for virtually any reason or no reason.

If you were late 3 times in 2 weeks, and if you called in sick several times, with or without a doctor's note, you have proven yourself to be an unreliable employee. As a business, they need to be able to rely on their employees to be at work when they're supposed to. Out of 14 calendar days you were unavailable to them for all or part of 5 of those days. If you're part time, you were likely not scheduled to work all 14 days - more likely 3 days per week, which means that out of 6 scheduled days, you were late or absent 5 of them.

You need to attend to your healt, both mental and physical, but your employer needs to be able to attend to the productivity and financial health of their operation as well. The other alternative that they had would be to stop putting you on the schedule until your health issues were resolved, which would end up accomplishing the same thing.

I fear that you would have no legal recourse on an issue like this.

Answer 7

You could apply for unemployment benefits from your state.

Also is your state an "At Will" state, meaning that they can terminate employment at any time without reason nor notice and employees can do the same as well. If you are employed in a State that operates under this policy, then because it is a part-time job you won't have any way to fight your former employer.

Answer 8

You can be fired from any company at any time, just like you can quit at any time. It's called "the right to work". You should have gotten doctor's notes in the beginning (you always should if possible for any absences). There is no legal issue here. Even if you hadn't been late or absent you could be fired.

Answer 9

There's a little something called "A WORK ETHIC". Basically it consists of showing up on time everyday and DOING YOUR JOB. You may look into acquiring a work ethic and in turn be able to hold down a job. Then you will have no need for an attorney or unemployment.

Answer 10

A part time job isn't worth hiring an attorney. Get another job! Why would you want to work at a place that is not treating you like everyone else. Turn that boss in for discrimination if you know that you are not being treated like everyone else. ( Turn her in to the Department of Labor in your state) Maybe the job was making you depressed! Good Luck!