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Fired over reporting illegal activities during probationary period

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Upst8NYGuy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NY

Hello all.. A first time poster with a rather in depth (at least to me) question.

I was terminated last Tuesday six days before my 60 day probationary period ended. I was given a reason of "It's just not working out" and "I just don't think you'll fit into the big picture". I had been making a decent $12/hr starting wage and actually enjoyed my time there. I was told that my termination was agreed upon by the owner, store manager and my immediate manager.

Now about 45 days into my employment the company did it's quarterly employee reviews and I got excellent reviews in every area except timeclock usage (I had some late punches). Several times during the review a couple of my projects were called "pure genius" by the owner of the company (doing the review).

A couple days after the review (about a week before my termination) I pointed out to the owner that the company was buying and selling some items that are illegal to possess/buy/sell in NY. The company does enough business in this particular merchandise that the activities would be Class A Felonies. The particular items are illegal under state firearms laws but not federal law. My immediate manager was privy to the conversation as well as he was in the same room during the conversation.

I was told by the owner that he had discussed it with a friend of his that was a police officer and that he had nothing to worry about. I gave him a full unabridged copy of the relevant law and asked him to read it over.

There were other illegal activities that would qualify as international customs & mail fraud also that were discussed on another day with my immediate manager. He just shrugged and said it's standard policy.

I honestly believe that I was term'ed because I brought these activities to the owner and he somehow sees me as a threat. Do I have any recourse? Do I bring the activities to the authorities? Do I get an attorney and discuss wrongful termination? Before or after I contact the authorities? Would the state department of labor take an entire report including the activities and contact the proper authorities? Where do I start?

Upst8NYGuy
 


Upst8NYGuy

Junior Member
I don't know if I can prove that I wasn't fired for tardiness, but their employee handbook states that there would be at a minimum one verbal warning and one written warning prior to a termination. Unfortunately it doesn't go into whether that applies during the 60 day probationary period.

During the employee review they said that although I had late punches that it shouldn't be considered a verbal or written warning, only that it "Needed Improvement".

I also know that there are employees there with much, much worse reviews and worse timeclock usage than I ever had. The reason for my late punches, and this was explained to management and witnessed by other employees, was that I would come in early and get caught up helping a customer or responding to e-mail relevant to work and miss the timeclock by ... 4-5mins.

I had one sick day in my.. 54 days there and ample call-in was given (4+ hours prior to my 11am start of shift), I was told during my termination "discussion" that my termination was in no way influenced by my sick day.

In fact the day that I was terminated I was there about 40 minutes before the start of my shift. I had just stopped and bought dunkin donuts for myself and my co-workers and was at my desk drinking my coffee when the manager, that literally five minutes prior said good morning to me and asked how my morning was, handed me my "Notice of Termination" and asked me to sign it (which I chuckled at and didn't sign).

I don't know.. I still enjoyed my time there even if they did sell illegal goods..

Upst8NYGuy
 

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