Wrongful (I hope) Termination

What is the name of your state? This happened in Utah.

My son was just fired from a position with the US Postal Service. He has been working there for about 6 months. The reason he was given was falsifying his employment application. Specifically he is accused of lying about having been convicted of a crime. Here is the question he answered No to:

7a. Have you ever been convicted of a crime or are you now under charges for any offense against the Law? You may omit: (1) any charges that were dismissed or resulted in acquittal; (2) any conviction that has been set aside, vacated, annulled, expunged, or sealed; (3) any offense that was finally adjudicated in a juvenile court or juvenile delinquency proceeding; and (4) any charges that resulted only in a conviction of a noncriminal offense. All felony and misdemeanor convictions and all convictions in state and federal courts are criminal convictions and must be disclosed.

There are 3 things on his record, in 1999 he plead guilty to Unlawful Possession of Alcohol by a Minor (Class B Misdemeanor), in 2000 he plead guilty to the Unlawful Possession of Alcohol by a Minor and Intoxication (both Class B Misdemeanors), and in 1997 he forfeited bail on an Improper Lookout Charge (Class C Misdemeanor). He was between 18 and 21 at the time of the Unlawful Possession charges.

So it looks to me like he probably should have admitted to this on his application, but what’s done is done. Does he have any chance to challenge this firing? Any reasonable interpretation that he did not have to answer yes? Any argument, other than common sense that minor youthful infractions should be forgotten, that he would have in his favor?

Advice is appreciated.

Sorry to dash your hopes, but no, this does not constitute a wrongful termination.

A wrongful termination means that it was ILLEGAL to terminate the employee for the reason the employer did. No law forbids an employer from terming an employee because of what they view as a falsification of the application. By your own admission your son should have listed the convictions. So what makes you think the employer is prohibited from firing him for not doing so?

I don't see any basis for legally challenging the termination. If he wants to throw himself on the employer's mercy and ask for a second chance he can try that; otherwise, nothing in your post suggests that anything illegal has transpired.

Oops

Sorry to tell you this on a Friday..
But your son is unemployed.
Nada chance.



If I am wrong the kind wise and knowing cbg

or the gentle and enlightened Beth will correct me

Or the great and Terrible Oz... (or someone else like him) will come and flame you...
so duck and cover

Well!

I guess I should call cbg the swift and mercurial... dang... I wanted to be first

(stamping foot)

Thanks, I am not surprised.

Anything to be made of the fact that he submitted his application a year ago and they are just now doing this? I found his record on line in 5 min; it should have been easier for a US government HR person to find it than it was for me.

Weelll

It is the US Postal Service...


They don't call it Snail mail for nothing....


Have your son post back in a few years on expungement and pardons... if he doesn't want to do his own research....
this will follow him around.

Nothing whatsoever to be made of that.

He still falsified the application. No law says they only have x amount of time to address it.

(Enasni, I like the way you think.)

Ok your points are well taken and I appreciate your advice. I realize he may well be out of a job. However his union rep is putting an appeal together for him it will be heard next week in a kind of informal arbitration, and it would be nice to get his job back. I am trying to help him come up with arguments that might help, and would appreciate input:

1 He says that he honestly thought that he had answered the question correctly. The question asks if he has ever been convicted and he plead guilty. He says the thought that was different.

2 The question says that he does not need to list any juvenile offenses and since the charges were based on his being a minor at the time he thought this applied to him (he was between 18 and 21 at the time).

3 The question says that he does not need to list noncriminal offenses and he did not think minor alcohol possession offenses were noncriminal.

4 The USPS employment information he was given at the time he applied states: “Criminal Conviction History - A local criminal check is required prior to employment. A more extensive criminal history check is completed at employment.” He was told that the FBI would be doing this criminal check. He believed that if the had not answered the questions correctly that would have been discovered by the USPS prior to his employment, he quit another good job based on the USPS offer. I was able to find his records online in 5 min for $11.95; I would think the FBI should have done at least as well. The record and his job were all in the state of Utah, pretty local. Does the USPS have any obligation based on their published statement?

5 I like cbg’s suggestion that he “throw himself on the employer's mercy and ask for a second chance” and will suggest that be a part of his case. These do seem to me to be pretty minor infractions; but I know that these things are viewed pretty differently in Utah than they are in rural north Florida where I live. Down here youthful drinking is seen as a normal right of passage not a sign of evil.

Any comments on these arguments or other ideas would be welcome.

Thanks

mom

I may be wrong but juvi records might be under 18.. the other crap he did is over that...
I actually thought it was16 but I have been wrong in sooooo many things.

Look up that expungement thing and pardons..

And Mom... as a Mom Stop enabling your son.

An update:

The union organized a kind of mediation and my son got his job back. It turns out that the union contract specifically states that the Post Office must verify applications before the end of the employee’s probationary period and this firing happened after that. I did not know of the Union contract when I posted, so y’all didn’t have the benefit of all the facts. Anyway good news on this end, and I do appreciate most all the advice, except….

ENASNI, “enabling”??? Aren’t you being a bit puritanical for a legal forum?

Who me?

alligatorob said:

An update:

The union organized a kind of mediation and my son got his job back. It turns out that the union contract specifically states that the Post Office must verify applications before the end of the employee’s probationary period and this firing happened after that. I did not know of the Union contract when I posted, so y’all didn’t have the benefit of all the facts. Anyway good news on this end, and I do appreciate most all the advice, except….

ENASNI, “enabling”??? Aren’t you being a bit puritanical for a legal forum?

Click to expand...

Me puritanical...NEVER... how dare you.. an overbearing Smart Aleck is more like it...

Great news on your son's job!!
Make sure he looks into that expungement or pardon for the future...
There is a lot of info on this forum, do a search... I am sure it would be a good thing for him if possible.
Really...I love to hear great news!