r/EmploymentLaw

I work in retail. I was a supervisor.

I took FMLA leave for a month to deal with health issues. I returned to work on Monday to learn my store reformated and every supervisor lost their position due to "recoding", and was immediately given it back with a new title. . I come back and was not given a new title, and my company email was also deactivated.

I reached out to corporate HR and was reassured that my pay stayed the same.

I have not had any supervisor responsibilities despite requesting them and trying to do them.

I am being put in a part of the store by myself in a literal construction zone to organize things.

From what I have read on the government site about FMLA, if my position was a supervisor when I left on leave, I have to be given a similar one when I come back. And similar responsibilities.

I just want to make sure I am not going insane here.

Edit: I am the only supervisor that was not made a supervisor again. The only employee that was not given the same equivalent position. I have no restrictions. I have 0 write ups or attendance points prior to this. I got two new managers in who are trying to clean house.

On May 15th a customer came into the store requesting Overnight shipping a prescription eyedrops to his wife. She had gone on a trip and forgotten her medication. She told the customer it would cost $140, he said that was to much and chose a cheaper method, but not an overnight method

On May 18th he returned to the store mad and spoke with the owner. Because the package had not arrived. He demanded that my wife to be fired.

The owner verbally reprimanded my wife, removed her from the schedule. Then told her that the she needs to report in on May 26th and pay $200 to the store and would be placed on probation. The alternative would be to resign on May 26th.

This seems incredibly extreme for a first time offense.

Is there an anything legally she could do? Would this prevent her approval for unemployment?

She is an hourly employee.

Thank you in advance.

I've done a little research on my own and I am pretty sure what is going is not legal.

The way I am paid is confusing to a lot of people, I am going to do my best to break it down simply. The last time I tried to get clarification a lot of people were hung up on me being paid by different entities so before I get these comments, YES I do receive both a W2 and a 1099, and no I am not confused by that part.

I am a salesperson for a cemetery and funeral home. My W2 comes from the cemetery which is my main employer. My 1099 comes from an insurance company. When I help people pre-arrange funeral costs (cremation, caskets) I am selling them final expense insurance policies.

This year at the cemetery office, they changed the sales staff from an hourly rate to a salary. We are supposed to earn enough cemetery commission that meets whatever our salary pay would be for that month. If we do not, it is supplemented. Example: Our salary base each month is $3,500. If I earn $3,000 commission, they pay the $500. Normally my cemetery commissions are between 4k-10k each month. I am basically commission only. I have only needed supplement pay once in the two years I've worked here.

They expect us to be in the office 8:30am-5:00pm and here on the weekends once or twice a month. Keep in mind this is all completely separate from my insurance commission payouts.

I believe this structure is legal, despite the annoyance of it. I regularly do not get lunchs or breaks because of how busy I am. After long busy days I am denied being able to leave at 4 or 4:30. Again, I believe this is legal, just annoying when you are not paid for your time.

My main question is, why am I not paid my sick or vacation time? There have been many months in which I had called out sick, or taken a couple of days off. They tell me it's because I have made my commission and exceeded my "salary pay" for the month but I do not think it's right.

I currently have 100 hours of both sick and vacation time accrued. I rarely take time off and if I do it's a day or two at a time. They get annoyed when I request time for short personal appointments during the day. I could understand if I have used my time up, but it is continuously accrued because of the pay structure.

Is it legal for them to not pay out my vacation time when I have taken time off because I made too much commission? I am losing money when I am not here and available for new leads, etc.

Hello all, I’m in desperate need of legal advice. I’ve currently been employed with my employer for 1 year and 6 months.

During my employment, I’ve experienced threats, racism, retaliation, and sexual harassment. I’ve reached out to several employment attorneys but haven’t received many responses. The few who did respond stated they are unwilling to take my case unless or until I’m terminated.

I recently learned that my managers had a meeting with the HR Business Partner requesting my termination. Allegedly, HR and Legal stated they do not have grounds for termination and that, based on my metrics, I’m the top performer on the team.

What can I do? I filed a complaint with the EEOC, but the earliest intake appointment I could get is in October. I feel physically ill coming into work, and I’ve noticed an increase in my work being scrutinized and picked apart.

Yes, I have documented everything — I’ve sent most of it directly to HR with little to no feedback in return. I’ve also saved screenshots and snippets of Teams messages. However, this situation is becoming too much for me to handle mentally and emotionally.

Any help or advice would truly be appreciated.

I work in a restaurant where we are required to clock out for break but also required to watch the restaurant and deal with any customers that come in. We’ve also been told we cannot sit during our “break”

Located in Texas. Salary. Previously terminated from hospital employer for reasons outside of workplace conduct per Texas workforce agency investigation. Obtained new employment that required me to have emr access to hospitals within my region. Previous Employer denied my emr access with new employer which lead to new employer to separate from me. Previous employer understood that all staff members are required charting access and still denied mine without sending me reason for denial. Do I have a viable case for interference?

Location: CA Salary

As I was trying to take medical leave, my manager set up a meeting and hinted there will be consequences when I take the leave. They downplayed my symptoms and said unserious. I ended up shortening my leave and coming back and quitting shortly after.

I have email evidence sending to therapist and to companies that arranges the leave stating how I’m scared of losing a job. I stayed less than a year so I don’t think I qualified for FMLA.

Do you think I have a chase here?

Location: Minnesota
exempt employee
Confused on overall legal terminology

My friend was terminated for insurance fraud due to putting her fiancée under “spouse” for her health insurance. Aside from the mistake and misunderstanding, we are navigating if it’s necessary to report to the LMFT Board:

Termination paperwork states that it was a “violation of the company’s code of conduct” and no legal ramification/reporting is coming from this with the company. Does this fall under the requirement for reporting termination details to the board when the licensure application asks for “termination due to any conduct that may be grounds for disciplinary action by a state or federal agency or regulatory board”?

We are confused on what is required of her to minimize damage over this. Not attempting to be untruthful, but not wanting to over share either.

EDIT: Her supervisor is supporting her in communicating with the board to properly notify them ahead of time in case the insurance company audits; which is where the ramifications would come from as the company did not report it themselves. Sorry if this was a stretch to put on this sub!

hi, my friend was employed by a company located on the west coast of florida. this small company fired him today and did not give a reason why. i understand that florida is one of those states where companies can fire without reason and there are no unions however, i think my friend could have a case for wrongful termination.

this past week was the company’s retreat where people from both offices came to florida and spent a week to develop company morale and connection. however, by the end of the trip, one of the senior staff got extremely drunk and physically abused her boyfriend who is also the ceo of the company and was verbally abusive and behaving in a dangerous way in front of staff. she literally stabbed the ceo with a fork and he had scratch marks all over him. a lot of the staff were scared and she was put on temporary leave. by the end of the trip, my friend told the ceo that he felt uncomfortable by the behavior and is scared to work with that person because she is his direct boss. the ceo reassured that it will be okay but then the next day, my friend realized that the abusive woman had disabled all his accounts relating to his job without warning. he called the ceo and told him about this and was saying that this was not okay because he feels like she did it because he spoke out against her behavior during the company retreat. the ceo again reassured him that he wasn’t fired and got his accounts back.

however, today, the ceo finally did fire him without reason but i think the reason is because the abusive staff member/girlfriend of the ceo was upset that my friend spoke out about her behavior and how she made everyone else feel extremely uncomfortable and scared she would hurt them too. would this be wrongful termination?

I worked as a management consultant for 10 years (salaried employee) until I was laid off last summer. The day I was laid off, I called the client I was working with to let him know and he immediately asked if I wanted to come work for him. He followed up with a link to apply. I applied and heard nothing for months despite several follow-ups. I assumed that my former boss had gotten to him and bad-mouthed me.

Four months later, my former client called and explained that he had tried to hire me but HR blocked it — because someone told them I had been terminated, not laid off. The role was doing exactly what I had been doing as a consultant, but instead being employed directly by the client. I was qualified and the client wanted me but was told no.

I have documentation proving I was laid off, and I have recorded calls (one-party consent state) of: (1) the original conversation where the client told me to apply, (2) my layoff call with the consulting firm, and (3) call where client confirmed he wanted to hire me but HR blocked it because they'd been told by someone (not specified) I was terminated by my former employer.

A couple weeks after that, he circled back and said it may have been a mix-up and that I had been cleared to reapply — but he never followed up again after that.

I believe my former boss (who was never a fan of mine) told someone at the client company that I was fired in order to blackball me from being hired there. I've now been out of work for a year when I could have been employed almost immediately.

Location: New York. The client and the role were in North Carolina, which has an anti-blacklisting statute.

Questions:

1. Do I have a viable case/is this worth pursuing via a demand letter?
2. Should I hire a lawyer in New York or North Carolina?
3. I'd prefer not to be named in a lawsuit if possible — is that realistic?

edit: So, after re-reviewing the recordings this evening, the client said he wanted to hire me, but was told by his leadership that “he should stop pursuing me.“ I was wrong about the “terminated” verbiage — they didn’t say that. He said he was given no further detail but said it sounded like it came from my former employer. Is that not blacklisting?

Hourly employee
NYS

I learned my company was underpaying employees. This issue ended about 10 years ago (with company ~22 years)

- 1.25 pay OT for Saturday work (opposed to 1.50)
- We were working 10 hours a day, straight pay, no OT
- We were told we could not leave for lunch in satellite locations and we had enough down time to eat at our desk
- if we left early for example, I left at 3:30, I would get docked 2 hours (I technically worked 8 hours tot hat point).

is there anything that can be done now?

I learned all of this due to a lawsuit from warehouse employees a few years back.

Company sold to new owners

Hello, I am an hourly customer service worker. My company is moving its entire customer service department remote/work from home. As a part of this deployment I am being asked to perform an internet speed test from home.

I have not been given time to conduct this test during my normal schedule. When I asked my supervisor how I’m supposed to track my time for this task he advised I wouldn’t be paid as the test would take 5-10 minutes.

Via google my main take away is im supposed to be paid for all time permitted or suffered to work.

I’m not sure if my question is “Can I be fired (employment terminated with out the ability to collect unemployment) if I never find time to conduct the speed test?“ or “Why would performing the test not be compensate?”

Employer states l’ve been terminated through no fault of my own because I no longer have a position to return to after taking FMLA, despite me fully expecting to return to that position. I had no prior knowledge of this, I was completely blindsided. Do I have any legal standing if, had I not taken FMLA, the position was not originally planned to be eliminated? I unfortunately cannot be certain if it was or wasn’t, so I don’t know how I could prove that otherwise.

IDR if i ever posted here before but once again having the convo w/ my friend.....
Location: New york state.
Non Exempt

My friend works for a credit union. they punish employees for using state mandated sick time. while she's full time, it's not called nys sick time but it's still given every year regardless (56 hrs).

she SAYS she called lawyers and no one called her back and she's called the state and they never called her back. Personally I don't think she's trying hard enough.

Here is how they treat nys sick time:

>We have sick time. I have right now, 75 hours of sick time.
If I call in sick tomorrow they say it's an unscheduled absence. It counts as an "occurrence". If I call in 3 days in a row that is one occurrence because it is consecutive days.
If I call in sporadically that is one occurrence each time.
If you have 3 occurrences you get a warning... then written, then termination.

This to me sounds 1000% like they are punishing employees for exactly what nys time is supposed to protect them from. they are flat out ignoring the law. Am I right in thinking this?

Any ideas, or help better links I can use to report to the state? I know there's nothing I can do to make her fight for herself because she wants to move up in the company but maybe if I had more resources it may help. idk. worth a shot. TIA!

Hi all. I am in California and am employed as a W2. We only get work sporadically, but I have accrued a few hours of sick leave. I have an upcoming procedure and want to use these hours, but they are saying I cannot use the sick leave unless they currently have me on an assignment.

Yes it's only a few hours but in this economy every bit counts. Any thoughts? Thank you.

I am seeking some advice about a situation I am in at work regarding a reasonable accommodation. I work as a bartender at a private members only club. I’ve been working there for the past 19 months and I’ve had the same hairstyle bangs (fringe), and within the last 2 weeks they are trying to enforce a dress code policy that requires everyone to have their hair pulled back completely off the face. Well, I happen to have a rare autoimmune disease that affects the eyes and makes my eyes very sensitive to light, irritants etc, and I asked for a reasonable accommodation to the dress code policy to allow my bangs as they act as a barrier against harsh lighting protect from environmental elements. I got a doctors note from my eye specialist fully supporting me and my medical condition. My HR offered no options, but transferring me to a different position in a completely different department with less pay and I will probably lose my health insurance in the process. She is saying that my bangs are such a food and safety issue that they cannot accommodate me in my current position. Should I accept the demotion and seek legal counsel or is this something they can fight? I have literally had no issues for over a year of working there and am amazing at my job, she just doesn’t care for me that much so I think she is making this difficult for me on purpose.