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Wrongfully accused and possibly terminated

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m00m00w4t3r

Junior Member
Im a bartender located in CA. Ive been working there for 8 years and have no write up or suspensions. I was told today i MIGHT get terminated because i was accused of stealing $15. I asked for proof and they said they did not catch me on camera doing that but they did see that i gave out 2 drinks for free. The situation with the 2 drinks was not intentional because the server calls out the drink order then while i make it he/she rings it in, it was also a busy/crazy night. The server did not ring in the order but instead pocketed the money the customers gave him. When i went into the office today I was accused of being his accomplice which will result in being fired or suspension. The server was fired today.

What can i do to protect myself if i were to get fired?
Am i able to collect unemployment or file a lawsuit for ruining my title and therefore making it harder to find a future job?
What can i do to protect myself if i were to get suspended or even cut my hours down to make me quit?

Thanks
 
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Proserpina

Senior Member
Im a bartender located in CA. Ive been working there for 8 years and have no write up or suspensions. I was told today i MIGHT get terminated because i was accused of stealing $15. I asked for proof and they said they did not catch me on camera doing that but they did see that i gave out 2 drinks for free. The situation with the 2 drinks was not intentional because the server calls out the drink order then while i make it he/she rings it in, it was also a busy/crazy night. The server did not ring in the order but instead pocketed the money the customers gave him. When i went into the office today I was accused of being his accomplice which will result in being fired or suspension.

What can i do to protect myself if i were to get fired?
Am i able to collect unemployment or file a lawsuit for ruining my title and therefore making it harder to find a future job?
What can i do to protect myself if i were to get suspended or even cut my hours down to make me quit?

Thanks

Unfortunately, they don't need a reason or any proof of wrongdoing in order to legally terminate your employment.

You won't know if you qualify for UI unless you apply - nothing ventured, nothing gained!
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
1.) There is nothing you can do to protect yourself from being fired. It is legal to term you on suspicion of theft (they are not required to have proof) but it is also legal to fire you for making the mistake of giving out two drinks free, even unintentionally. If they want to fire you for this incident, there isn't anything in the law that is going to stop them from doing so

2.) File for unemployment - yes. I seriously doubt that unemployment would be denied over this incident without substantially more proof that you deliberately engaged in theft. A lawsuit, no. Google at-will employment. You can legally be terminated for far less reason that is provided here.

3.) Nothing - see #1. Whether you actively participated in theft or not, you DID give out free drinks, even if accidently. You can be fired for that; you can be suspended for that; and you work the hours your employer says you work. If he wants to cut your hours, he can cut your hours. If he wants to "make you quit", you don't have to make him happy, but there's nothing you can do to force him to leave your hours alone. I assume that if you had a legally binding and enforceable contract guaranteeing the number of hours you work you would have said so.

Please read my signature line for additional information.
 

commentator

Senior Member
Okay, if they want to they can fire you. You live in an "at will" state. They can fire at will, you can quit at will. End of story. They do not have to have proof, they do not have to have any good reason. You cannot sue them for firing you.

The recourse that you do have is that when you file for unemployment insurance after being fired, the company has to demonstrate that they had a good, valid misconduct reason for you to be fired, or you will be approved for benefits, and this will cost them money eventually.

If you are a regular employee, if the business has more than one or two employees (making them an unemployment covered employer), if you have enough covered wages in the past 18 months, then you would have enough wages to set up a claim for unemployment insurance.

This is your only protection from being fired arbitrarily from your job, the downside that they do have to pay in unemployment taxes and it will cause their taxes to go up if you are approved to draw from them.

Unemployment benefits aren't nearly as much money as you'd make working, and they are finite, they do end, and you are required to be searching for other jobs while you receive them. They're to get you by, tide you over until you find something else.

I strongly suggest that you begin looking for that "something else" right now, before they fire you or start cutting your hours. But do not quit this job because you think they're about to fire you. This will not help your references or cause it to be easier to get another job like you believe it will. If they start cutting your hours, to force you to quit (making it much harder for you to get unemployment benefits) you have two possible recourses.

If they walk in and say, "Okay, starting this week, we're cutting your hours from 40 to 8, you will no longer have health care or benefits provided," it is probably better for you to say, "Okay, then if this is how it is, I quit." And then you immediately file for unemployment benefits. Doing that is called "forcing a quit." It's pretty much the same as firing someone.

But if they start chopping your hours a few here and a few there, less and less,keep up with what you are making in gross pay, and when it becomes less than you could draw in a week of unemployment, file for partial benefits. This means you keep working, but you are making less than you could receive in a week of unemployment insurance, so you can use unemployment insurance to supplement your wages. This will usually force the employer to either put you back to work full time or fire you outright.

Once the bloom is off the rose, so to speak with this employer, the old "we may fire you and we may not" deal, it would be a real good idea to assume this job will be done soon and begin making a vigorous job search for something else. Even if you were innocent as a baby's breath, they've accused, and they'll suspect and will treat you as if you were at fault. They can legally do this, regardless of how much or how little proof they have, but you always have that option to move on.
 
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jiggy78

Member
Unless there is something you aren't telling us (like a giant scheme you have been running), mistakenly giving away two drinks is not misconduct by any standard and you should have no issues qualifying for unemployment.

There is nothing you can sue over. Your employer is not a court of law and they do not need to give you a fair chance at keeping your job.
 

m00m00w4t3r

Junior Member
Thanks for all the info. Everything i stated in my first post was exactly how it happened.

I will admit that it was my fault for not double checking to see if he put the drinks in or not. The part where they suspect me of being his accomplice and splitting the money he took is whats really getting to me for the most part.
 

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