Thursday, August 13, 2015

My Husband Was Fired from His Job – What Now?

Aug. 13, 2015

Dear Cathy:

My husband got hired on June 26, 2015 and since then he has been trying to contact the new manager and District Manager by text asking to please contact him because he has concerns.

The supervisor told everyone that the new manager and the VP of the company are idiots! The supervisor called my husband a liar. My husband asked the supervisor for transfer and he was denied. No one per corporate is allowed overtime unless it is approved by Corporate. The supervisor and the other 3 guys all get overtime and no one else.

In the last 3 weeks my husband has gotten no more than 24 hours per week, and they sent a crane operator to pick up trailers and not my husband. My husband has over 30 years experience and he prides himself on his driving record and abilities. He has a clean MVR.

Well Monday the supervisor called to tell my husband again no work, but everyone else will be working. So my husband asked again for a transfer. He was denied. Again my husband was not being treated fair so he tried to contact his District Manager and manager again.

Next the supervisor fired my husband. There are 4 guys that have been there for 5 years and they have their own click which also includes the supervisor. The crane operator told my husband at lunch "Gee the only time you don't bitch is when you have a mouth full of food." The supervisor laughed!

Does my husband have a case? We have all the text messages and in Texas we are allowed to record the conversations. We recorded my husband being laid off, and he told Corporate he was fired. Terminated Employee, Alabama

Dear Terminated Employee:

First of all it sounds like a lot of underhanded, illegal and unfair practices were happening at the company. Name calling from a supervisor is the lowest of the low and that alone gives you the right to take the case to the next level especially if you have proof that this took place. But since you only gave me part of what happened, I am not in a position to fully respond to your question. But I will do my best.

I have been out of the workplace for 10 years but back then employees put complaints in writing but not by text. Even though there is a record of the complaints by text, proper channels would have been for him to go to his immediate supervisor then up the chain of command and it sounds like that is what he was trying to do.

However, most Managers are not going to answer a complaint by phone or text so he should have sent a “certified letter” up the chain of command then when he went to the internal complaint system or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC.gov), there would have been an official document of the complaints.

I am not even sure nowadays if the EEOC will even take texts as a form of proof -- but they should as long as the text are printed out but don’t expect for an EEOC investigator to obtain these documents. And remember EEOC is NEVER on the side of the employee.

Your husband can still pay the initial fee that most lawyers charge of $300 to sit down with a lawyer for 30 minutes to an hour and discuss what happened. If others were treated the same way then he could file a Class-Action against the company - even if he could find just 4 people.

If I knew which company it was I could make more comments. Research the company on Google.com and find out what else has went down in the company. Put in the words - Race Discrimination; Black Employees; Wrongful Terminations; and Class-Actions.

But understand even if your husband saw the District Manager chances are they would have acted the same unprofessional way as the supervisor. All jobs are like this these days. The workplace is a horrible place to be at these days.

Your husband wasn't on the job that long so they can also claim he was still on probation so they had the right to fire him. There are many more scenarios -- again like I said I don't have enough information to respond, however, the only options I see for your husband is -- your husband should sit down with a lawyer, or even a paralegal or law student could even answer his questions and they hang out at law libraries; file for unemployment benefits at www.DOLgov, which he can receive for 20 to 26 weeks and receive at least $300 a week, while he look for other employment; or start his own business.

Your husband has 30 years in this type of work, so in order to save his sanity, it might be time for him to call it quits or start his own business -- because again most workplaces are polluted with this type of unprofessionalism.

I am no longer counseling anyone on workplace abuse or discrimination because of what’s happening today in most workplaces -- which is too disheartening -- and that’s why I wrote three books on it -- so my advice is for you to read my 3 books on workplace abuse -- Workplace Survival Guide: How To Fight Discrimination, Whistleblowing and the Workers’Compensation System and Discrimination 101: The Complete Guide to Recognizing and Surviving Discrimination in the Workplace (Volume 1 & Volume 2). Also check out my “Workplace Blog” at http://cathyharris-workplace.blogspot.com.




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