Job Harassment

[jthomp]

Currently I am employed as a career firefighter in a department within the state of Virginia. In the past I have had several personal conflicts with two chief officers and a captain, which has resulted in being pressured on my job. Over the past two or two and a half years there have been a number of incidents that have occurred involving myself and these individuals. To name a few, I have been denied the right to test for promotion even though I was eligible. When I was finally allowed to test it was at a lower rank. The result of that test placed me near the top of the list of candidates. As promotions were made, I was pushed down to the bottom, ending with being the last promoted. Other incidents included being and knowingly placed in a hostile work environment with the captain which one of the previous confrontation occurred. Since the time of promotion, other incidents have occurred. One incident was being placed in a lower position then my rank, while the person from that position was placed above me doing what should have been my job. Another incident included accusations of stealing. Even though these allegations have never been confronted directly to me, one chief officer has told others that he believed I was stealing. In addition, I have been employed for over 15 years with a completely clean personnel file, and in the past 6 months I have had 2 letters and 3 reprimands placed in my employment file by these individuals as a result of several minor incidents that have occurred which did not violate any rules or regs. During these incidents, a supposed investigation was done, and at no point was I ever contacted as to what had happened or what the incident was about.

My question at this point is could this constitute harassment, or what exactly are the grounds for harassment. Also what type of proof is needed to substantiate a case of harassment?

Thanks you in advance for any assistance that may be provide.

 

[ALawyer]

This seems to be a situation in which they are out to get you and building up a case for your termination.

Assuming there is no firefighters union that will fight for you, I URGE you to get the advice of a local lawyer who knows municipal labor law. Otherwise they will keep on going and one day they will just fire you, and there goes what I assume is a nice pension after a set number of years that you have been building up.

The lawyer can not resolve your personal problems with the folks you report to, and can not make them like you, but can probably get them to back off and save your job.

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