ccsracer46
New Member
here goes...thanks for any help!
My fiancee is Hispanic*will come into play later* and works at a retail store. in Provo, UT. She has worked there roughly for four months, two of which she has been a manager. When she started at the store she was given minimal training(not meeting the requirements) and started working. After a month or so, she was promoted to a managerial position, and given three days of training and put on the floor. Company policy at the position dictates a 7 day training period. Moving on, associates and managers at the store recieve discounts on company merchandise, with policy reading the employees must pay for it themselves, but for only themselves buy items as gifts. It states families cannot use the discount for themselves. Since she has been working at the store, her store and co-manager have allowed other associates family to purchase items for their whole family with the discount. The associates were not well trained on the discount procedure and did not question the manager. My fiancee's parents came to town and bought my fiancee items from the store, with the co-manager giving the ok for my fiancee's discount to be used. When the items were bought, an assoicate rang them out and Angelica signed her mom and mentally handicapped aunt for store credit cards at their request. She had not been educated that she was not allowed to do this, so she rang them up for cards. The other associate had been the target of ridicule from the store manager, who is pregnant, being evaluated in front of customers in the store, getting her hours cut for no explainable reason, and now is on WIC and food stamps due to this. She has also been labeled as a "stinkbug" on a posted chart in the office due to her low volume of credit card sales. Two weeks has passed since my fiancee's mother bought items from the store, and a fraud report was filed on my hispanic fiancee and the pregnant co-worker, but not the white female worker whose mother constantly uses her discount.
Company policy defines that infractions must be reported in a timely manner. The company is not moving to take punitive actions against the white female, but is looking to terminate the pregnant and hispanic worker on accounts of fraud. They did not inform either employee of the investigation, the employees heard about it through co-workers who had been told at their store and at another local store, violating company privacy policy for such investigations. My fiancee left mutiple messages with her district manager asking to be informed her of the investigation, but he did not return her call. He did return the call to the pregnant employee who asked the same question and told her not to worry, making my fiancee think she is going to be blamed entirely for this issue. They waited to tell the employees a week before one was preparing to go home for Christmas and during her finals exam week at her college. She is now emotionally drained from crying and worrying that this could affect her future hope of federal employment and also affecting her finals scores. My fiancee was questioned by a company fraud investigator and told she was suspended and would know friday if she is to be terminated. (this conversation was tape recorded) She was also told to turn in her store keys. I went with her to ensure nothing else could be said or done without a witness. Her manager knows I am a severly handicapped veteran from the Iraq war and I walked in with a visible limp with my fiancee to turn in the keys. Her manager proceeded to take a personal phone call with her realtor for 20 minutes, leaving us standing on the floor in the company waiting for her to finish her call. I was in extreme pain from standing so long and felt very uncomfortable as all of the workers stared at us. I feel this was a form of humilitation she imposed on my fiancee. She is now awaiting final word.
I would like to know if my fiancee is terminated on Friday does she have a legitimate case for being wrongfully terminated and what steps we should take from here. I find it odd that a pregnant employee and a hispanic employee have been singled out in this matter. This issue has affected her emtionally and could potentially hurt her future career as a government employed physcians assistant. Thank you for any help I can get from this. I have a master's in Human Resources and know many of the things they are doing are wrong and near discriminatory, but would like an expert's advice.
My fiancee is Hispanic*will come into play later* and works at a retail store. in Provo, UT. She has worked there roughly for four months, two of which she has been a manager. When she started at the store she was given minimal training(not meeting the requirements) and started working. After a month or so, she was promoted to a managerial position, and given three days of training and put on the floor. Company policy at the position dictates a 7 day training period. Moving on, associates and managers at the store recieve discounts on company merchandise, with policy reading the employees must pay for it themselves, but for only themselves buy items as gifts. It states families cannot use the discount for themselves. Since she has been working at the store, her store and co-manager have allowed other associates family to purchase items for their whole family with the discount. The associates were not well trained on the discount procedure and did not question the manager. My fiancee's parents came to town and bought my fiancee items from the store, with the co-manager giving the ok for my fiancee's discount to be used. When the items were bought, an assoicate rang them out and Angelica signed her mom and mentally handicapped aunt for store credit cards at their request. She had not been educated that she was not allowed to do this, so she rang them up for cards. The other associate had been the target of ridicule from the store manager, who is pregnant, being evaluated in front of customers in the store, getting her hours cut for no explainable reason, and now is on WIC and food stamps due to this. She has also been labeled as a "stinkbug" on a posted chart in the office due to her low volume of credit card sales. Two weeks has passed since my fiancee's mother bought items from the store, and a fraud report was filed on my hispanic fiancee and the pregnant co-worker, but not the white female worker whose mother constantly uses her discount.
Company policy defines that infractions must be reported in a timely manner. The company is not moving to take punitive actions against the white female, but is looking to terminate the pregnant and hispanic worker on accounts of fraud. They did not inform either employee of the investigation, the employees heard about it through co-workers who had been told at their store and at another local store, violating company privacy policy for such investigations. My fiancee left mutiple messages with her district manager asking to be informed her of the investigation, but he did not return her call. He did return the call to the pregnant employee who asked the same question and told her not to worry, making my fiancee think she is going to be blamed entirely for this issue. They waited to tell the employees a week before one was preparing to go home for Christmas and during her finals exam week at her college. She is now emotionally drained from crying and worrying that this could affect her future hope of federal employment and also affecting her finals scores. My fiancee was questioned by a company fraud investigator and told she was suspended and would know friday if she is to be terminated. (this conversation was tape recorded) She was also told to turn in her store keys. I went with her to ensure nothing else could be said or done without a witness. Her manager knows I am a severly handicapped veteran from the Iraq war and I walked in with a visible limp with my fiancee to turn in the keys. Her manager proceeded to take a personal phone call with her realtor for 20 minutes, leaving us standing on the floor in the company waiting for her to finish her call. I was in extreme pain from standing so long and felt very uncomfortable as all of the workers stared at us. I feel this was a form of humilitation she imposed on my fiancee. She is now awaiting final word.
I would like to know if my fiancee is terminated on Friday does she have a legitimate case for being wrongfully terminated and what steps we should take from here. I find it odd that a pregnant employee and a hispanic employee have been singled out in this matter. This issue has affected her emtionally and could potentially hurt her future career as a government employed physcians assistant. Thank you for any help I can get from this. I have a master's in Human Resources and know many of the things they are doing are wrong and near discriminatory, but would like an expert's advice.
