Written Warning

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

There was an incident where it cannot be determined individually who caused the incident and the District Manager wants to 'write-up' the four individuals working the day the incident occurred (there was no collusion by the employees to cause the incident and there is no process in place to determine specifically who caused the incident - e.g. 1 guilty party & 3 innocent).

If they want to have us agree to a statement and sign such form, would we be entitled to reject this and then sue if they fired us, or sue anyway for harassment/unfair work practices. I certainly do not want a black mark against my name for something I have not done!

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

I do not think there is anybody anywhere that you can sue, even if they fire you unjustly for doing this bad thing you never did. There is no bureau of fairness in employment where you can protest your having been given a black mark against you with this company, no labor laws that would preclude your employer from firing you for any reason they wish to fire you for.

What I would suggest is that though you fully communicate your innocence to them, you cooperate with the decision of management on this issue, whatever it may be. You may want to sign the write up after careful reading, depending how it is written, or may want to exercise other options. See a recent post here where this issue was beaten to death. Perhaps ask to include a statement with the write up that you disagree with this reprimand and deny any responsibility for the wrongdoing which occurred.

If there is a company policy that write-ups may be removed from your file after a certain time period, then perhaps you can keep up with this date, and request that the warning be removed from your file.

But if you throw a spasm, refuse to cooperate with management on this point, do not try to solve this problem in a professional way, they very well might decide to terminate you, and there would be absolutely no one you could sue for any reason. (You might be able to be approved for unemployment insurance, but that's about it.) If you decide to "sue anyway" without being terminated, good luck finding someone to take your case, because there is no labor law being broken here.

Agree, there is no one to sue. Even if you are terminated (fired), it would not be illegal/wrongful. A wrongful termination is not being fired for something you didn't do but for a reason prohibited by law (ie age, religion, gender).

In at-will employment, you can be terminated at any time for any reason except a reason prohibited by law or unless you have a binding employment contract or CBA to the contrary.

Overall, your employer has done nothing illegal & would do nothing illegal in terminating you.

And, just to add, there are no laws in any state directly addressing write ups. The law does not tell the employer who he may write up, under what circumstances he may write them up, or what he may write them up for. It is entirely up to him as long as he does not violate Title VII and related laws, which according to your post he did not.

Agree that write ups are entirely up to the employer as long as they don't violate Title VII & related laws as noted above. ... or unless you have a binding employment contract or CBA addressing write ups.

Thankyou for your replies.

Gotta luv capitalism!

Seriously though, they haven't issued the warnings, as I (would like) to believe they have realised there position is both detrimentally de-movitional and illogical - lack of any evidence, would be like the police simultaneously charging multiple people for a crime with only one perpetrator without any evidence - Judge would laugh the police out of court)

I don't really need the job financially or otherwise and leaving is an option, but my moral beliefs certainly prevent me from allowing this sort of behaviour to others who have been brought up in this country to be ambivalent.

Oh, and at will works both ways - Sunday morning open, nobody there, oh well hahahahhaa 2 years training & experience just left the building...employer f*s with you, f* them as hard as you can.Everytime.

Your police analogy is the epitome of apples and oranges.

swalsh411 said:

Your police analogy is the epitome of apples and oranges.

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Pardon me? (with all due respect) - accusation without proof is apples to apples (or oranges to oranges if you prefer...) Perhaps my example is exaggerated...

BHAussie said:

Perhaps my example is exaggerated...

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Or totally irrelevant.

BHAussie said:

Pardon me? (with all due respect) - accusation without proof is apples to apples (or oranges to oranges if you prefer...) Perhaps my example is exaggerated...

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It has nothing whatsoever to do with your question. Employers are not police and don't have to follow the same rules.

Given that the basics of law looks at what a reasonable person would do in a reasonable situation (aside from legislation), there was no evidence to suggest in this case that a reasonable person would have acted the way the employer did, just as it also would be unreasonable for police to act without reasonable suspicion.

Therefore, as I have no tolerance for this type of tyranny (see your sig), I did something about it (resigned).

Cheers

Under the circumstances, assuming you are not in one or two certain states, that's the only right you have. "The law" doesn't look at anything anyway, and doesn't apply if there isn't a law governing the situation.

Did you file for unemployment benefits? You should, even though you quit, there is a small slight chance that they will believe you had a good work related reason to resign. But worth signing up to try for, if you don't have another job to go to immediately.

Wow, I didn’t realize this thread started 4 months ago.

BHAussie - Many years ago I was “written up” (twice) for what really amounted to a personality clash with my supervisor at the time. I was incensed. Both times, I signed the reprimand – which only means I read it, received it, and was spoken to about it. Signing it does NOT mean you agree or admit any guilt. However, both times I also wrote a doozy of a response and asked that it be placed with the warning/reprimand in my personnel file. Periodically I checked to see if my responses were there. It was. After I left they may have removed my response – I don’t know, don’t care anymore.

Therefore, as I have no tolerance for this type of tyranny

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but my moral beliefs certainly prevent me from allowing this sort of behaviour to others who have been brought up in this country to be ambivalent.

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A bit melodramatic.

I'm guessing you are very young. You will find - in fact you should already be aware, that a great many things go on in this world which do not match your standrads of behavior or your moral beliefs. You didn't state specifics of the incident, but at this stage it probably doesn't matter because you resigned.

You claim you don’t need the job financially, and since you won’t tolerate tyranny, you quit. Fine. Problem solved; guess you really showed THEM, huh? That paves the way for someone who does need the job.

However, you can still file for unemployment. You many or may not win, and they may or may not try to deny your benefits.

applecruncher said:

You claim you don’t need the job financially, and since you won’t tolerate tyranny, you quit. Fine. Problem solved; guess you really showed THEM, huh? That paves the way for someone who does need the job.

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In a state where there is double digit unemployment at the moment...

the job was probably filled an hour after the OP submitted their resignation

the job was probably filled an hour after the OP submitted their resignation

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I was thinking 30 minutes.