Anyone can offer advice how to reverse unjust termination or ensure unemployment benefits?
Hello fellow interpreters!
I was wondering whether any of you can provide advice on how to obtain some remedies related to termination from my position as a US-based OPI Interpreter with AMN Healthcare.
There’re many things that concern me about this termination. I would ideally like my employment to be restored, but if not, I would at least like to not be denied unemplpyment benefits. Looking for your advice.
Although I do not have a written notification of my termination, it was orally explained to me during my “farewell online meeting” with my supervisor that the reason for termination is my alleged use of a cell phone while interpreting an online session. The company policy prohibits “to answer or make personal calls, text, and email from a cell phone, or any other electronic device, while in a session”. However, I never engaged in the above actions and only used the cell phone to start or stop the alarm to keep track of the times when to log on and off. Ironically, my manager and I had previously talked about setting up alarms to ensure attendance compliance.
It profoundly struck me that not only I was never given a written acknowledgment of my termination, but the above “farewell online meeting” consisted of the manager simply stating the termination and hanging up the phone without an opportunity to request any clarification, after which my online access to all systems was immediately terminated.
I am even more strengthened in my belief that the phone situation was used as a false pretext for termination due to the following:
In March AMN Healthcare management emailed us about workforce optimization measures due to decreased demand for services from clients and terminated many availability-only interpreters and decreased the hours worked by other interpreters (6 hours in case of part-time workers, and I forgot how many hours in case of full-time workers).
Around the same time I noticed disproportionate use of disciplinary action. In my case I was given a "final warning" for not having logged PTO hours for an unplanned absence, and notably this “final warning” was given after 7 months of a clean record (the previous warning 7 months prior was for being late to the shift).
I want to point out that, although AMN Healthcare has a bad reputation for its relationships with employees, it is not my goal to commiserate on here. We all know that big providers of remote interpretation services suck big time. Many times proven. Rather I’d be seeking your advice on how to either restore my employment or ensure I have a strong case for unemployment benefits. I appreciate your help!