Employee of the month

rwhite9562

New Member
Jurisdiction
Pennsylvania
I was hired as a collection specialist for a bank in September 2019. 6 months later the pandemic hit and we were sent to work from home. 6 months later in September 2020 I received my review which stated that I was not performing up to expectation. The collections team handles delinquent credit cards, checking accounts, and loans. I was thoroughly trained on credit cards, which is my area of expertise. I was supposed to be trained on checking accounts and loans but that did not happen. I was told that it was not my fault but management should have trained me in the other areas but, primarily because of the pandemic I wasn't trained properly. I was thus put on a 6 month re-training where the manager was supposed to train me on areas I was defecient. No retraining was supplied. I did my best to learn the areas they stated I should be proficient in, on my own from other coworkers. In January I was selected as collector of the month. I requested to be trained on the systems that I was told I should know. Subsequently, I was called into the office for what I thought was more training but I was fired at the 6 month deadline of the retraining, because of what they stated was poor performance. No other reason was given. Do I have any legal recourse?
 
I was hired as a collection specialist for a bank in September 2019. 6 months later the pandemic hit and we were sent to work from home. 6 months later in September 2020 I received my review which stated that I was not performing up to expectation. The collections team handles delinquent credit cards, checking accounts, and loans. I was thoroughly trained on credit cards, which is my area of expertise. I was supposed to be trained on checking accounts and loans but that did not happen. I was told that it was not my fault but management should have trained me in the other areas but, primarily because of the pandemic I wasn't trained properly. I was thus put on a 6 month re-training where the manager was supposed to train me on areas I was defecient. No retraining was supplied. I did my best to learn the areas they stated I should be proficient in, on my own from other coworkers. In January I was selected as collector of the month. I requested to be trained on the systems that I was told I should know. Subsequently, I was called into the office for what I thought was more training but I was fired at the 6 month deadline of the retraining, because of what they stated was poor performance. No other reason was given. Do I have any legal recourse?

Legal recourse? No, not based on what you have presented.
 
Do I have any legal recourse?

Nothing you stated in your facts indicates a wrongful termination. In all but one state a private employer does not need good cause to fire an employee. Instead, a private employer may terminate an employee for any reason other than a reason prohibited by law. Thus, in the law a wrongful termination means that the reason for your termination was one that the law prohibits. The prohibited reasons include firing you because:
  • of your race, color, religion, sex (which includes sexual orientation/gender identity), national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like marital status, military status, etc);
  • you make certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);
  • you participate in union organizing activities;
  • you use a right or benefit the law guarantees you (e.g. using leave under FMLA);
  • you filed a bankruptcy petition;
  • your pay was garnished by a single creditor; and
  • you took time off work to attend jury duty (in most states).
The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary a bit by state. So the issue here is what was the actual reason for firing you. The company said it was for poor performance. If that is the real reason then there was no wrongful termination. Even if that was not the real reason, it is still not a wrongful termination unless that reason is something like the things listed above.

Of course, even if the termination is legal, you still may qualify for unemployment benefits and should apply for those ASAP.
 
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