Topic: I Got Fired!!!!!!

[Hilton]

Well I got fired from my job. I am thinking about bringing a civil suit again my old employer for wrongful termination.

On June 1st, I met with a woman from the district office. I told here about my supervisor harrassing me. I handed over CCTV footage of my supervisor's wrong doing while on the job. On June 11th, she came back to the site. Called me into the Director's office, and her and the Director suspended me pending termination. They said that I was derelict in my duty for making the CCTV CD while monitoring the cameras, and that I had miss-used client equipment. On June 14th my Director called me a told me that I was terminated.

How can any of that be dereliction of duty when I was doing my job reporting wrong doing by a supervisor?

I'm thinking about bringing a civil suit regarding it. Opinions?

See the history of this here:
 previous forum posting

Hilton  

[Javora]

Hope you kept a copy of that tape.
 

[J. Carney]

I say go for it, man. You had to have hard evidence to back up a claim like that- otherwise you are going to loose out to someone with more seniority and connections in a 'he said, she said' situation. I think people will see that you just used what was on hand to back your story.

The deriliction and equipment muis-use charges seem, to me, to be a tac taken to try to prove the evidence you have inadmissable.

Get a professional oppinion, but think I'd chance it on anything better than 50-50 odds.

[Stormbringer]

Go get 'em. Fry them for everything they are worth.  

[jualdeaux]

I agree with javora. I hope you kept a copy of that CD. If not, you can probably kiss anything you try goodbye.

[SghnDubh]

Hi.
I'm an HR guy.

1. How long have you been on the job? If you were within your probationary period (if your employer has such a thing) you can be terminated without them giving a reason.
2. If your state is a right-to-work state, you can be terminated at will and there's little you can do about it.
3. To bring a wrongful termination suit against the employer, you have to either do it yourself, which is tough, or find a lawyer who can agree to take the case. Unless you can show the lawyer that there are big bucks for him, it's doubtful that they'll take the case.

You used company equipment wrongly...even tho you were trying to protect yourself. I hate to say it dude, but my advice to you would be to find another job and ABSOLUTELY file for unemployment, since your former employer has to pay that.

Good luck man.

[Soreyes]

Hilton i have to go with Sghndubh on this one.
Myself I have been working Security here in San Jose for over 10 years now.  As  I see it, you got under the skin of your boss.  And he got rid of you. In the Security busness it happens all the time.... I know this from Experance

Now if you want to go ahead and try to sue your Guard company, you will not be able to use that CD that you were talking about. To use it you would need the Writen permision of the Company, whose equipment you used to make the CD, and also whos property it was filmed on. Let me just say that 99.9% of the time they will not do this.

[TheJudge]

Don't forget that if the unemployment office determines you were terminated for legitimate reasons, they will likely deny your claim as well.

Using company equipment to record the workplace is probably something that would be called legitimate.  

Now, you can still pursue the harrassment claim, separate of the termination case, something you're more likely to get headway on.  You can contact the EOC and file a claim with them, since your attempt to resolve the claim through your company failed.  If you still have a copy of that disk, they may or may not look at it depending on the legal issues.  However, if they find you were harrassed, they will fine the company and you will have a court case that a lawyer will take.

I'd go that route, because often times filing an EOC complaint can result in settlement without actually having to file suit.

[Soreyes]

 

Quote:
I'd go that route, because often times filing an EOC complaint can result in settlement without actually having to file suit.  

Good point Judge I forgot about that route.

[Iceman]

Hilton where are you located? What unit are you with? Does the unit have a history of doing stupid things like this? (IE if Officer A has a continuous strain of bad NCOER's then maybe it's a bad officer?)

[SghnDubh]

Yeah Hilton, theJudge is right, they might deny your claim...but if you're in California or a state with similar laws, you stand a better than 75% chance, since most of the time the company would rather pay you unemployment than waste their HR department's time fighting you. In any case, good luck man. If you're in Northern CA let me know---my hospitals are always looking for good security people.

[TheJudge]

I just wish you had a hospital in the Modesto area, Sgnhdubh.  Jobhunting sucks.

[Bonk]

Is is perfectly legal to dismiss an employee "without cause". If it comes to court they will simply say you were dismissed "without cause"  and nothing more - your whole discrediting the boss strategy needn't have anything to do with it.

I see it kind of like this: An employer pays me to do what I'm told... So I do... If I don't like it I leave and get another job. Over time I have also come to realise that many in management/ownership postions are not there because they are deserving but because the company has no choice (family/friends) so they put them where they can do the least harm  (management! ).  

[Hilton]

Iceman, I'm still going through AFROTC. I 'm talking about my security job.

As far as the CD is concerned I still have the original copy of it. Also other supervisors and guards are willing to say that I was given a raw deal and harrassed.

Hilton  

[TheJudge]

 Read through this link for filing charges  

[Hilton]

Well I got fired from my job. I am thinking about bringing a civil suit again my old employer for wrongful termination.

On June 1st, I met with a woman from the district office. I told here about my supervisor harrassing me. I handed over CCTV footage of my supervisor's wrong doing while on the job. On June 11th, she came back to the site. Called me into the Director's office, and her and the Director suspended me pending termination. They said that I was derelict in my duty for making the CCTV CD while monitoring the cameras, and that I had miss-used client equipment. On June 14th my Director called me a told me that I was terminated.

How can any of that be dereliction of duty when I was doing my job reporting wrong doing by a supervisor?

I'm thinking about bringing a civil suit regarding it. Opinions?

See the history of this here:
 previous forum posting

Hilton  

[Javora]

Hope you kept a copy of that tape.
 

[J. Carney]

I say go for it, man. You had to have hard evidence to back up a claim like that- otherwise you are going to loose out to someone with more seniority and connections in a 'he said, she said' situation. I think people will see that you just used what was on hand to back your story.

The deriliction and equipment muis-use charges seem, to me, to be a tac taken to try to prove the evidence you have inadmissable.

Get a professional oppinion, but think I'd chance it on anything better than 50-50 odds.

[Stormbringer]

Go get 'em. Fry them for everything they are worth.  

[jualdeaux]

I agree with javora. I hope you kept a copy of that CD. If not, you can probably kiss anything you try goodbye.