Unfair treatment and termination

Let me start from the beginning, My husband and I worked for the same company, he was there for 13 years and I was there for 12 years, we helped to buld the company, nobody else there has been there for more than 5 years. The reason is, its because of the Management treats people like dirt. My husband was the lead technition and I was Asst operations manager. Our boss, the operations manager seemed to singled out my husband for the past 3 years trying to provoke him. On 10/26/05 she had pushed him to the limit, so he quit. A few monthes before, she had hired another person with a degree in manufacturing, but had no clue about the work that we did and more or less demoted my husband and expected him to do as this new guy had told him - my husband as I said was lead Tech and did most of the training, he was to the point where he was dealing with the customers so that he was meeting their expectations and they were very happy with his work, so for the life of me she did not need this other guy and he was also hired for almost double of what my husband was making. On several occations my boss made the statement "Bob is only here because of you" but he was the best tech that they had and knew everything about the business production. On the day he quit, she pulled me into the office and asked if there was going to be a problem with me, I told her what I felt and yes I was angry, so I left the office and she followed behind me trying to order me back in, I told her she would have to fire me because I was not going back in. She than proceeded to call my husband an a--hole, I told her she was being an a--hole,It was left at that. On 11/3/05 I had gone to work and did my job as I was suppose to, nothing ever interfered with how I did my job, I Told the president to cancel my health insurance because i could no longer afford it. That afternoon the manager came to me and asked to speak to me in the office. I asked her if she was going to fire me, she stated "I would never fire you", so Iwent in with her, she proceeded to tell me if I stayed, The owner would pay my insurance for 2 monthes and she would give me a raise to help me out, I told her " At this point I don't have a choice" and it was left at that, The following paycheck came and there was no insurance taken out, but I did not get my raise. I then asked her about it and she stated "You will get that agfter hank pays for your insurance for 2 monthes" I was not happy but I left it at that. I had talked to another employee about the insurance (I was never told not to say anything). Everything pretty musch went back to normal (as normal as it could get). On 11/15/05 I was planning on leaving alittle early for something my son had going on in school, which wasn't a problem at 2pm when I was about to leave, the manager asked to speak to me again, so I went into the office with her and she says to me "I have to let you go, people are saying you told them about hank paying for your insurance" that was it, no notice no nothing. I worked at one point doing the job of 4 people and never appreciated, I knew that company better than she did, There is not one person ther that can stand the way she runs the company and she even walks all over the owner, he is afraid if she leaves the building will fall down, But now he will really have a rude awakening because in a few years she will retire and I was the only one that could run the place when she was not ther. She was paying my husband 12.50 an hour after 13 years, yet there was another guy there doing basicly the same as everyone else yet she brought his pay up to 12.50 after only 4 years, there is a girl there who has been there for 5 years yet she is only making 9.00hr. You are not aloud to talk, she says she only has to give us breaks because she is being nice. We had an addition built on and had an open house, the mayor and all were there, we were told to continue working and we would be able to join in for the food, well she waited for every pperson to leave before she came to us to tell us that we could eat now, well you know where we told her to put the food, mind you at the time there were maybe 10 employees. What do you think??

1 answer  |  asked Oct 26, 2005 5:48 PM [EST]  |  applies to New York

Answers (1)

David M. Lira
She's Allowed to Mess Up

I have to assume that your former employer was a private, non-unionized workplace. As a result, the employment at will doctrine applies. Under that doctrine, the employer is not required to be nice. THe employer can be nasty and unfair. So, to start, this employer seems to have done nothing wrong.

The employer is also allowed to be stupid. So, the fact that employer is allowing thing to happen which would eventually hurt the employer has no bearing.

All of this assumes that there is no illegal discrimination going on. Note that discrimination is not illegal. Only certain forms of discrimination are illegal. It would be illegal to mistreat employees because of the race, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability or sexual preference of the employees, at least in New York State.

The only point you raise which you might have some protection for is breaks. A full-time employee is entitled to a lunch break of at least 1/2 hour. If you work more than a certain number of hour, I believe it is 3 or 4 hours, you are entitled to a break. An employer's failure to provide appropriate breaks is a violation of the New York State Labor Law. You can file a complaint concerning breaks with the New York State Department of Labor.

posted by David M. Lira  |  Oct 27, 2005 1:14 PM [EST]

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