Possible wrongful termination??

[NatashaO23]

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

I have been employed at a casual food chain for 9 months. It is a franchise and have worked directly with the Owner for this amount of time. I have typically been on day shifts but tonight I covered a shift for an employee who was recently fired. The procedure for our cash register is that whoever is available to take an order jumps on the register when a customer comes in. I only worked the register for one order tonight, and it was a credit card. At the end of the night, my manager counted down the drawer and found it was $20 short. She then told me that it was the same way the night before. She called the Owner of the store and he said to fire all of the regular employees (3 of us) unless we came up with the money. None of us had any amount of money that was not ours when we came in. (She took us back individually and had us empty our pockets) The manager is the only one that has been able to keep her job.

Is there any law that protects me or can help me get my job back? I have been a dependable employee and to my knowledge this mostly happens on night shifts which I do not usually work.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Unfortunately, you have no recourse other than to appeal to the owner and file for unemployment.

 

[Proserpina]

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

I have been employed at a casual food chain for 9 months. It is a franchise and have worked directly with the Owner for this amount of time. I have typically been on day shifts but tonight I covered a shift for an employee who was recently fired. The procedure for our cash register is that whoever is available to take an order jumps on the register when a customer comes in. I only worked the register for one order tonight, and it was a credit card. At the end of the night, my manager counted down the drawer and found it was $20 short. She then told me that it was the same way the night before. She called the Owner of the store and he said to fire all of the regular employees (3 of us) unless we came up with the money. None of us had any amount of money that was not ours when we came in. (She took us back individually and had us empty our pockets) The manager is the only one that has been able to keep her job.

Is there any law that protects me or can help me get my job back? I have been a dependable employee and to my knowledge this mostly happens on night shifts which I do not usually work.

This is not a wrongful termination.

Sorry.

 

[cbg]

This is unfortunate and I happen to think it's very poor management. But it is not a wrongful term as defined by law, and no, there is no law you can invoke that will force the employer to give you, your job back. Sorry.

 

[NatashaO23]

Thank you. I was unsure because everyone wasn't fired. I am going to appeal as soon as I can get in touch with the Owner.

 

[cbg]

Good luck to you - let us know how it goes.

 

[commentator]

Yes, you can ask the owner if you can have your job back...but this is in no way "an appeal." Not formally. And if he/she says no, you go immediately and file for unemployment insurance while you are looking for another job. Provided you have enough wages in the past two years to set up a claim, they'll ask all the information about why you were terminated, and call the employer and determine why they said you were terminated.

And you have a pretty good potential to be approved for benefits if there was a mass firing after you all refused to come up with the shortage from your pockets and they had no real proof that one of you took the money. The owner should hate that everyone fired in this manner has the potential to draw unemployment benefits that will affect their unemploymen tax rate.

As someone said, this is a very sorry style of management, very inefficient, and the manager who did it should be reprimanded by his/her employer. but as far as being illegal, or being protected by the government against being fired unfairly, there's no right or no place you can complain or appeal about this.