Do I have any kind of misrepresentation/wrongful termination case?

[SpawnedX]

State I reside and work in: Rhode Island

I was laid off from my call center position in August of 2010. I applied for and received unemployment benefits. My state has the second highest unemployment in the country. It took me a long time to find work, I had already maxed out my federal unemployment and was on my second week out of 20 in my state extended benefits. Things were not looking good. I got offered a position at Meineke the usual 90-day to hire gig, the pay was low and I was coming up just short of being able to cover my expenses.

Right before my first week at Meineke, I was interviewed by a company called GTECH. They asked me if I knew what they did there and I responded with yes, that they took lottery retailer jobs and EBT calls for Illinois. I was lead to believe this is what I was interviewing for. Then during my first week at Meineke they called to offer me the position at a pay that I could not turn down. I left Meineke on good terms, even told that they are sad to see me go as I was working out well, but they understood the need to make my bills.

GTECH hired me under the same 90-day temp to hire program as most companies do. Everyone who is permanent there goes through this. During my first day there, three hours into the orientation, I come to find out that I was hired for something completely new and different from what I was lead to believe. I was told that many contracts were being signed for this service and even told on several occasions that this was a good spot to be in for the long term. I excelled at the job and was quickly recognized both with perfect quality assurance checks and by being asked to be on the escalation team. The escalation team was not what I expected so I asked politely if I could remove myself from it (no extra pay or title change was involved) and I was told yes and that it would not affect my future projects.

I was recognized as being knowledgeable, even asked to have individuals listen in with me and help train them after only my first two weeks of being there. I created help sheets for fellow co-workers, never came in late, never called out. Basically I did everything that was asked of me without complaint.

I was on day 77 when I was asked to see the HR partner, based on what others told me, this is usually how they offer a permanent position to you. Instead I was told that there was no call volume and they were over head count and that they had to let me go. I was upset and scared, not sure if I was even eligible for unemployment again in this horrible job market (turns out I am not). At first I thought nothing of it, but then I started asking co-workers who else was let go and they all gave me the same answer, with confusion, they said no one, they all assumed I got fired and no one told them differently. I even have a letter from GTECH stating why I was let go. However, the facts don't add up on this, something is fishy and I feel like I was lied to both during the interviewing and hiring and then again when I was let go.

Now I am up the creek without a paddle, they took me from a secure job by telling me that they had a great conversion rate of temporary to permanent and that as long as I did my job that I had nothing to worry about. I was even told by the call center manager that they planned on keeping all of us, and that other skill opportunities were coming and to sit tight. I was also trained on e-mails, which most people hired for this project were not. I don't know what went wrong and since they cannot back up their layoff claim and did not provide me with any reason for termination, that I was let go for something that they knew was less than legitimate and tried to cover it up with this fake layoff claim.

Please advise if I have any case.

 

[sandyclaus]

Unless you signed a contract for employment that guaranteed you a permanent position, you have no case. Rhode Island is an “employment-at-will” state. Therefore, an employer may generally terminate an employee at any time and for any reason.

It's only wrongful if you were fired in violation of an employment contract or if you were subjected to termination as a member of a protected class in violation of Federal law.

 

[SpawnedX]

That answers half my question.

I need to know what constitutes as misrepresentation. I would have not taken this job had they told me that I was being hired for this particular skill. They represented the position as being one of their lottery retailer or EBT associates in the interview and during the job offer. If I knew I was being brought on for a project that was new and unheard of (it was illegal until recently), I would have stuck with Meineke, as new projects can quickly become terminated projects.

I never would have signed any of the contracts that I did if they divulged this information prior to day one with the company.

 

[sandyclaus]

That answers half my question.

I need to know what constitutes as misrepresentation. I would have not taken this job had they told me that I was being hired for this particular skill. They represented the position as being one of their lottery retailer or EBT associates in the interview and during the job offer. If I knew I was being brought on for a project that was new and unheard of (it was illegal until recently), I would have stuck with Meineke, as new projects can quickly become terminated projects.

I never would have signed any of the contracts that I did if they divulged this information prior to day one with the company.

Once you started performing the duties of your job, you knew, or reasonably should have known, that the job was not as you claim it had been represented to you. You could have quit the job and gone back to Meineke, but instead you chose to stick with it until you were terminated. Simply put, you didn't seem to have a problem with the job being misrepresented to you until it did not turn out to be the permanent opportunity you had hoped for.

I seriously doubt that you have any kind of claim here for misrepresentation under the circumstances.

 

[SpawnedX]

Can't go back to a job that has already been filled.

 

[sandyclaus]

Can't go back to a job that has already been filled.

Then it's back to your job search.

 

[commentator]

Having worked may be of benefit to you in one way. Aside from the fact that you did get the income from this job while you were working there.
I assume you were no longer eligible for unemployment benefits because you had exhausted all the wages and extensions in your base year. Since you had been out of work for over eighteen months when you accepted this job, when you were laid off from it, there was no more unemployment insurance for you to draw. However, if you continue to work part time and fill in jobs, even for minimum wage, you're putting wages back into your unemployment records, and you may work back up to where you have a claim to file for the next time you are let go.

So now, you're in the position of no money coming in, and no job. It's time to do pick up work, temp work, to take a job, any job to get by. And no, there is no mandatory hiring or mandatory requirement that you be hired for the exact job you were promised or interviewed for. And even if there were some sort of binding contract at the get go, that you went on and worked at the job has cancelled that out. The deck is stacked to the benefit of the employers of this country, not the workers.