False Acussations and more

[ohfunds]

What is the name of your state? Ohio


I am writing on behalf of a friend who doesn't have Internet access. She wanted to know it anything could be done. The situation goes like this. She was working as a cashier in a small cafeteria she quit her job March 7, 2003, but made it official to her boss on March 13, 2003. The reason why she quit is due to

1. False accusations - On an almost daily basis he'd accuse her of taking money from the drawer but she hasn't taking nothing. Actually when he is there the drawer is supposedly short when he is not there the draw is either even or over. Customers claim that he can't add properly either.

2. He questions her sexuality (she is straight but he is saying that she is gay). on the clock. Also he makes comments to her like the one about her boobs will get bigger if she keeps moving the boxes.

All this had been going on for 1 1/2 years. It got to the point that she couldn't take it any more, because all of the stress was making her health go bad. She won't eating right. Also he told them that the only time that they could eat was once a day on break and there is someone diabetic on the job. Also if she tried to call off he'd tell her that he doesn't care get in there anyway. He is smart because I don't think that he made his comments to her in front of people because he knows that she could sue with witnesses. Is there anything that could be done. She has an email address if you want it. Now she is going to halve dificulties getting other jobs because we think that he is going to say bad things to the interviewer and she won't get hired.

 

[Beth3]

1. There is no law which would prevent the boss from falsely accusing your friend of being responsible for the cash drawer not balancing.

2. This might well amount to sexual harassment but I have a feeling this small cafeteria is too small to be subject to federal discrimination laws. An employment base of 20 employees is necessary to be subject to Title VII.

3. Restricting eating to break time is not illegal.

4. Your friend can't take on the diabetic employee's problem.

5. Other than FMLA (which I suspect doesn't apply here either), there are no laws that require the boss to allow someone to be absent.

6. A miserable work environment and a jerk of a boss does not provide a basis to sue. A law has to be broken and I suspect none were, due in part to the very small size of the business.

7. If your friend's ex-boss knowingly tells factual lies about her during a reference, that is actionable. Given that the boss is a jerk, your friend ought to prepare for his giving a poor reference and line up other people who can give her a positive one - co-workers, perhaps several regular customers she got to know well, etc. There are ways around a problem like this.

 

[ohfunds]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling about most of the information in the reply.

I was not sure about the harassment since the cafeteria might be small, but the company is quite large. See the cafeteria is part of a whole company with numerous cafeterias in the city which makes the number of total employees around 100-200 maybe more people total around town.

As far as the diabetic goes I put her in to show a point, because she has a medical reason, and he doesn't really care about anything. You are right he is a jerk, but there is no law about being a jerk.


I have advised her today to call corporate, explain the situation, and why she left the entire story. Since we think that they don't know what is going on. Also I told her that if she know people who are aware, or who have experienced anything in there to come forward, and let corparate know.

There was a lot more to the situation, and the message was just a very beginning.

Thanks again for the reply it was helpful