Beyond wrongful termination

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kevsruca

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I worked as a waitress for a small family owned restaurant for almost two years, never once where there any problems between me and my employer, customers, or other employees. But the owner/my boss had gone above and beyond to treat me like one of her children. The entire length of my employment I had an ongoing relationship with my boyfriend who was in prison. It seemed that after he got out my boss was trying to get me to quit, after only having two full time waitresses and one part time, suddenly two more get hired, for over a year I worked 6 days a week and I got cut down to 4 days a week with only 2 being a full shift.
The other morning I opened and one of the new waitresses were scheduled to come in a few hours later to be my "backup", I ended up working the entire shift with no "backup", who didn't bother to even call to say she wasn't going to come in. But on top of that 10I minutes AFTER my shift was supposed to be over I was stuck waiting for the other new waitress to come in, who also didn't have the courtesy to call and say she would be late. After many attempts of trying to reach her, I called my boss and asked for someone to come in at which point she
proceeded to scream at me over the phone
about how the other waitress would be there in 30 minutes and if I couldn't stay for that much longer I was fired. Which was when I very calmly and nicely, because I had customers, told her that no one had bothered to tell ME anything. And she replied with that's it you're fired.
Later that day I was asked to return my keys and get my paycheck, which included a write up sheet, that is used to show that employees had been given fair warnings before being fired, I myself had NEVER been written up which is shown by the lack of my signature by the line that says "employees signature" by each write up that my boss proceeded to fill out.
Is there any legal action that I can take?
 
Yes. You can file for unemployment.

Oh, you mean can you sue your employer for anything? Not successfully. There is no legal requirement that you have been written up, given any warnings or in any other way cautioned before you can legally be fired. (If you think about it for a few minutes you'll realize why.) This was not a wrongful termination, nor yet "beyond" a wrongful termination. It may or may not have been unfair, but it was perfectly legal.
 
As stated above, you should apply for unemployment insurance benefits. If your former employer successfully challenges your application, you should then appeal the initial determination. Based on your posts, it would appear that you would be entitled to such benefits.

Beyond unemployment benefits, though, you would not seem to have any other recourse. In California, it does not appear to be unlawful to discriminate against and/or discharge an employee solely because of her association with an ex-offender. While an argument can be made your employer's actions here were "wrong," they do not appear "unlawful."
 
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