Help:- Should we talk to a lawyer?

[Zombie]

My GF is a retail pharmacist and I think we need some help here.

On thursday she was contacted by loss prevention (she works for a pharmacy chain). They were asking her questions about what she had for lunch on Feb21 (weekend). Apparently they accused her of not paying for the lunch. Now on weekends she is the only pharmacist working a 12 hour shift and she does not remember if she paid for it or not.

Loss prevention goes on to say that she checked their records and there is no record of her paying that $4.00 for the food. So on friday they took a written statement from her saying she does not remember and may be due to rush in the pharmacy may be she forgot.

Fast forward to today they let her go on grounds of "Violation of Company Policy". Anybody who is familiar with the store enviornment will know how hectic the enviornment is. They do about 400 scripts a day on weekends with only 1 pharmacist and couple of techs. There were like 3 guys questioning her in the back of the store. She never realised how serious this was so basically said yeh may be i forgot but I have no recollection of it, hopying it would go away.

But now we have a problem. I don't think she will have a problem finding another job but I would love to get her name at least cleared.

Any suggestions? Is a labor lawyer needed here ?

 

[Heisenberg]

They fired her over a miscommunication about a $4 lunch? That's seriously fvcked.

 

[spidey07]

I'd talk to a lawyer.

 

[Zombie]

yes, I am very pissed off about this but I have to stay calm and support her. But that is one farked up company. She has worked so hard for them and this is how they repay her. She was the only one doing overnight shift when needed and covering where needed and those mofo's do this to her.

I wish they would atleast give her a chance to quit instead of putting sh!t like that on her file.

 

[rocadelpunk]

see if you can get steven segal as your lawyer.

 

[KarenMarie]

all over $4.00??

that sucks... maybe they wanted to let her go for another reason but waited until she screwed up.

I dont think you have a case, unless she can produce a receipt for the food. And I would not worry about getting another job. By law, all this company can provide is hire date, staus, pay scale and end of employment date. They cannot say she was fired, or anything about her work habits. They can be asked if they would ever re-hire her but that is as far as it goes.

Most places do not let employees ring up their own purchases. A manager must do that for them. This was set up for the protection of the company, but in this case, it would have saved her ass.

Sorry, that sucks for her.

 

[Hoober]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I'd talk to a lawyer.

 

[StageLeft]

I thought pharamcists could easily get jobs? If I was let go over possibly not paying $4 for a lunch, and it was a simply mistake, I'd tell them to eat some ass. Even if she gets her job back, she should find a new one, and when she finds that new one give her current company exactly zero notice. Just one day call in and say she quits. What a POS employer.

Great job loss prevention! They lost $4 AND a freaking employee. Whoo hoo for them.

 

[Zombie]

She needs support and I am hoping something good will come out of this thread so I can show it to her.

yes its easy to find another job but the fact that you get accused about something like this is very depressing. Also they have no solid proof. Just because they can't find any records does not mean she didn't pay for it.

 

[GasX]

1. Is there proof she ate lunch that day?
2. Is there proof she did not pay?

Without both, there are grounds for a wrongful dismissal case.

 

[KarenMarie]

Talk to a lawyer about what?

She violated company policy. ie; taking something without paying for it. It doesnt matter if it was $4.00 or $400.00. Unless she can prove a receipt, she has no legal grounds. My guess is that someone there had it out for her and waited until she made a mistake.

Violation of company policy is a blanket excuse for firing someone that you dont want there anyway. This is not a dig at the girl, but could be used for any number of reasons. I have seen it done loads of times... Employees are stealing and they cannot figure out who it is, so they clean house. Or they look at their books and figure that they can hire cheaper ppl or do with less staff and fire some employees.

I am sorry to say that unless she can prove that she paid $4.00, she doesnt have a leg to stand on. If they wanted her to stay, they would not have busted her for only $4.00. I would suspect that there will be other firings or someone just did not like her for whatever reason.

But I would also guess that a lawyer would tell her that without proof of payment, she is SOL

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Mwilding
1. Is there proof she ate lunch that day?
2. Is there proof she did not pay?

Without both, there are grounds for a wrongful dismissal case.

I think a company needs a "good" reason to can an employee. Like, if you steal a paperclip, they can't fire you. Or, if after 15 years of being on time you're 5 min late I don't think they can fire you. This seems about as stupid, especially since they can't seemingly proof that she didn't pay for lunch.

 

[DAM]

Yeah, how do they know she ate lunch? Did she eat with someone else? Did someone else report her?

 

[Zombie]

burden of proof should not be on her that she didn't steal. They are accusing her of something and they better have rock solid proof for that.

 

[captains]

they contacted her on thursday.....as in 4/1/04? If so you get a big ole

 

[Zombie]

its been going on for past 3 days and she turned in her pharmacy keys today so no I don't think this is April fool.

 

[gopunk]

talk to lawyer specializing in employment law

 

[Mill]

Originally posted by: Zombie
burden of proof should not be on her that she didn't steal. They are accusing her of something and they better have rock solid proof for that.

You are correct. Burden of proof should be on the one doing the firing. Either way it sounds fvcked up. I'd not worry about that job. I'm sure there are much better places around.

 

[GasX]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Mwilding
1. Is there proof she ate lunch that day?
2. Is there proof she did not pay?

Without both, there are grounds for a wrongful dismissal case.

I think a company needs a "good" reason to can an employee. Like, if you steal a paperclip, they can't fire you. Or, if after 15 years of being on time you're 5 min late I don't think they can fire you. This seems about as stupid, especially since they can't seemingly proof that she didn't pay for lunch.

Stealing is a very good reason. Two things to consider are the size of the company and the length of the employment term. As each gets larger, it becomes a lot more difficult to justify firing someone. Firing a 20 year employee at IBM is a lot harder than firing some schmuck who has been on the line for 3 weeks at a 25 employee firm...

 

[KarenMarie]

Originally posted by: Zombie
burden of proof should not be on her that she didn't steal. They are accusing her of something and they better have rock solid proof for that.

To them... their proof is that the food is missing and she cannot prove that she paid for it. They suck, no doubt about it. A written warning would certainly be in order in this case, but they wanted her out.

It is hurtful and humiliating, I know, but it would be best for her to move on as quickly as possible without dwelling on it for one extra minute. Easier said then done, I am sure, but she is young and needs to get another job asap to put this behind her.

 

[Zombie]

and even she forgot her situation should be taken in to account. 12 hour shift with screaming patients at the window and 2 pharmacy techs don't help. If she was running around and forgot that should not be grounds for firing somebody. Also pharmacy techs who had lunch with her don't remember anything either.

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Mwilding
1. Is there proof she ate lunch that day?
2. Is there proof she did not pay?

Without both, there are grounds for a wrongful dismissal case.

I think a company needs a "good" reason to can an employee. Like, if you steal a paperclip, they can't fire you. Or, if after 15 years of being on time you're 5 min late I don't think they can fire you. This seems about as stupid, especially since they can't seemingly proof that she didn't pay for lunch.

Well it really depends on if she was an "At Will"employee or not. If someone is an At will employee, the company could hypothetically fire someone for stealing a paper clip, being late 5 minutes after 15 years of service, or forgetting to pay for a lunch. IMO, I think her situation sucks, and screw the company for not giving her the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Tom]

You should at least talk to a lawyer or maybe dept of labor. If this is a multi-state chain they can't just do whatever they want.

Do they fire everybody who does this ? Find one man who didn't get fired for the same thing and you're probably golden.

Does the CEO get fired if he doesn't pay for his lunch ?

 

[captains]

call up your dept. of labor and see what they have to say about it

 

[Hammer]

there's got to be more to it than that. no company would fire someone over that one incident.