Fired after two days

[MaxPowerNY]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York

My wife was hired for a job as a receptionist at a company here NY. When she filled out the application she was told they were going to perform a background check. They hired her, she worked for two days. By the end of the 2nd daythe background check came in they brought her into the meeting room and fired her.
Now according to my wife this is what they said:
You have a bankruptcy on your credit. We told you we were going to do a background check and we had to find out the hard way (my wife does not recall anywhere on the application that she filled out a question asking about bankruptcy). He then mentioned the credit cards she had during the bankruptcy, and pointed out that her student loan was in defferment. She explained the situation that I was loosing my job in Mich, we were forced to sell our house, it did not sell. the bank would not work with us, for a Deed in lieu. In order to keep a job my company relocated me to SC, but we could not pay the mortgage and rent. After looking at everything, and the bank threatened to come after us for the diff between auction sale and the mortagage we filed as we felt this was best. The manager of the company then stated that he has had a problem with people who have ever filed bankruptcy. He said he was going to call the owner of the company and see what he wanted. he left the room and made a phone call, about 5 to 10 min later he comes back in and says sorry we have to let you go because we cannot have a person with bankruptcy here. The company is in the shipping business, not in the financial field or banking. My wife was hired to be a receptionist.

Is there anything that can be done?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[You Are Guilty]

Bankruptcy is not a protected class under federal, state or local law, so that's out. There is some potential recourse through in BK law (see: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/11/525.html), however, even there, there may some question as to whether the statute would be applicable here. (And perhaps more importantly, even if it was, you then have to figure out how to prosecute it. I doubt the Justice Dept. has the resources to deal with it and no attorney is going to touch it without a hefty retainer).

So as a practical matter, while a DOJ complaint may be warranted, it couldn't hurt to start looking for a new job in the meantime.

Good luck.

 

[MaxPowerNY]

she is looking for a new job, however would she be protected by:

Section 525(b)(Bankruptcy law) says, “No private employer may terminate the employment of, or discriminate with respect to employment against, an individual who is or her been a debtor under this title…solely because such debtor is or has been a debtor under this title or has not paid a debt that is dischargeable in a case under this title.”

there was no discussion of performance, and he stated you are being fired because you have filed bankruptcy.

Thanks,

Max

 

[commentator]

She can file for her unemployment insurance. She took the job with the assumption that it would be a full time permanent job. She had signed the papers, worked two days. If they then decided to fire her, for whatever reason, she will be out of work through no fault of her own, and therefore eligible for unemployment.

She should not have lied on her application, if that had happened, she could not get benefits, but since as you say, she was not asked, and thus did not deem it fit to tell anyone, and when they found out, they fired her, it was certainly their decision to fire, no misconduct on her part involved. Now while she's looking for something else, she can draw a little bit of money. And from the sound of it, she has missed a glorious experience of working for a judgmental jerk.

 

[wyett717]

Did the application state that the background investigation would include a credit check (many of them do)? Did they ask her to disclose any potentially negative information ahead of time that would be found in the investigation?

If this is the case, and she did not disclose the information they asked for, they could have grounds to terminate her because she was untruthful on the application.

 

[MaxPowerNY]

The application said a background check and would include financial history. However there was only a spot for signature. The form did not include an area to disclose any information other then the commiting of a felonly

Thanks

 

[racer72]

She can file for her unemployment insurance.

How much does one collect for unemployment after 2 days of employment? In my state a person has to be employed for the previous 180 days in order to be eligible for UI, I could not find a number for New York.

 

[ecmst12]

Hopefully, she was employed prior to this job....

 

[commentator]

Yes, if this is the first time this lady has worked in say, the last two years, then she is not going to be able to collect unemployment. However, if in Michigan, South Carolina or New York duing the last two years she has worked enough for covered employers to set up a claim, she can file and set up a claim. Then they will consider the reason for leaving her most recent covered wage job. From the info we have here, she will likely not be filing a claim against New York's unemployment system, though it will depend on where she has the wages during the base period.

Since she was hired for a permanant, full time position, and it was intended to be on-going, and then was fired for a non-mosconduct reason, in many states, this would defintely be considered her last employer. If by some regulaton in the state she files against they will need to look at the last employer prior to this, then in some states, moving with family for a job is an acceptable reason, or who knows what.

If you are fired, you should always file for benefits. It costs nothing to file, and takes nothing but your time, and in this case, as I said, I am saying her chances of approval are very good -- providing she has the base period wages to make up a claim and the max wages paid weekly in that state.

Number of days one has worked for an employer has nothing to do with how much unemployment one could collect. That is always going to be based on the amount of wages in the quarters used to set up the claim.