shadesgifts
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NJ
My sister works as a waitress/greeter at a small diner. The owner is rather fickle in his hiring and firing practices. He'll often threaten to fire or actually fire an employee then change his mind a few hours later or the next day. No one working there feels they have any real job security, but they dare not complain because being a "troublemaker" is the one thing he'll fire you and send you home on the spot for.
She wanted last week off for her birthday, and as she'd worked many doubles and covered shifts for other employees earlier in the month he begrudgingly gave her the time. She spent her "vacation" in New York City with another of our sisters and catching up with friends and going out. It's a small diner so most people knew what she was planning for her trip, inlcuding the owner.
She planned to return to work on Monday late afternoon for the evening shift, but she fell ill and we had to take her to the emergency room on Monday morning. She has a respitory infection and on her discharge papers the attending wrote she wasn't to go into work for two days. When we arrived home she called the diner and the owner called her a lazy liar and said she was still probably partying in New York but he didn't care if she was hung over or what she'd better come in or else she wouldn't have a job to come back to. She insisted she was ill and he asked for the name of the attending and the hopsital's phone number which she provided from the discharge papers.
Yesterday evening a few of her co-workers called with their get well wishes and to share the office gossip. The owner had told the staff that my sister had been "caught in a lie" as he's called the "so-called" hopital and the number was fake as was the doctor's name. They were told that if she called she was to be informed that she was fired. (An aside: another co-worker said they watched as he made the call and when he was connected to the hospital he was placed on hold and then he hung up)
My sister called this morning to get to the bottom of things as today is day 3 and she was planning on going into work though she still feels pretty lousy. The greeter on duty this morning refused to put her through to the owner or manager saying she didn't think anyone wanted to speak to my sister anymore. She also advised my sister that her name had been crossed off the schedule and the owner had made a general announcement to the staff this morning that she was no longer an employee.
Is there anything she can do?
My sister works as a waitress/greeter at a small diner. The owner is rather fickle in his hiring and firing practices. He'll often threaten to fire or actually fire an employee then change his mind a few hours later or the next day. No one working there feels they have any real job security, but they dare not complain because being a "troublemaker" is the one thing he'll fire you and send you home on the spot for.
She wanted last week off for her birthday, and as she'd worked many doubles and covered shifts for other employees earlier in the month he begrudgingly gave her the time. She spent her "vacation" in New York City with another of our sisters and catching up with friends and going out. It's a small diner so most people knew what she was planning for her trip, inlcuding the owner.
She planned to return to work on Monday late afternoon for the evening shift, but she fell ill and we had to take her to the emergency room on Monday morning. She has a respitory infection and on her discharge papers the attending wrote she wasn't to go into work for two days. When we arrived home she called the diner and the owner called her a lazy liar and said she was still probably partying in New York but he didn't care if she was hung over or what she'd better come in or else she wouldn't have a job to come back to. She insisted she was ill and he asked for the name of the attending and the hopsital's phone number which she provided from the discharge papers.
Yesterday evening a few of her co-workers called with their get well wishes and to share the office gossip. The owner had told the staff that my sister had been "caught in a lie" as he's called the "so-called" hopital and the number was fake as was the doctor's name. They were told that if she called she was to be informed that she was fired. (An aside: another co-worker said they watched as he made the call and when he was connected to the hospital he was placed on hold and then he hung up)
My sister called this morning to get to the bottom of things as today is day 3 and she was planning on going into work though she still feels pretty lousy. The greeter on duty this morning refused to put her through to the owner or manager saying she didn't think anyone wanted to speak to my sister anymore. She also advised my sister that her name had been crossed off the schedule and the owner had made a general announcement to the staff this morning that she was no longer an employee.
Is there anything she can do?