laid off

[djcircolone]

What is the name of your state? Illinois.

I live in Northwest Indiana but was employed by an airline in Chicago Illinois for 4 years, The airline had filed banruptcy and had to lay off some employees, during this time they went by senority to lay off employees. After emerging from bankruptcy the airline decided that to keep cost low they would furlough some more employees. I was first told that my department was being eliminated but this did not seem correct to me ( I was in the I.T. Department ) . So I pursued the matter with my department manager, who is based out of Indianapolis ( Company Headquarters ) and he confirmed my suspicions that indeed the whole department was not being eliminated but that the supervisor and 1 technician was staying on. I was also informed that the 1 technician was not going to be me.

I have 2 years more senority over any of the other technicians that were in my department and each technician performed the same job there were no designated roles per position.
I am absolutely certain that the reason that the technician they chose to keep was chosen because of his personal relationship with the Supervisor in Chicago.

They would go to lunch together everyday were as I would bring my lunch and often both would not come into work so they could go out to events that were unrelated to work.

Prior to being laid off the only work reviews I had were positive and I was never disciplined at work.

I do not believe it is fair that now me and my family have to suffer simply because I chose to simply perfom my duties at work and keep a strictly business relationship with the other employees instead of having a personal relationship with my superior.

Do I have any legal recourse?

Thank You

 

[cbg]

Not unless you are operating under a contract, union or otherwise, that guarantees that layoffs will be handled on a strict seniority basis. The law does not require anything of the sort; all the law requires is that who is chosen for layoff cannot be based on a protected characteristic (race, gender etc.). Beyond that, it's up to the employer. Any recourse you have will be found in your contract, if any.

 

[djcircolone]

I did not have a contract but in the past whenever there were layoffs the company went strictly by senority and I even asked my HR rep if the company had any certain policy when if came to lay offs and I was informed by him that it was by company senority.

I know there may be nothing I can do and I am in the process of starting a new job, but it just gets frustrating that you show up for work everyday and do everything that is asked of you then you get booted out for simply not participating in non-work related events

 

[cbg]

No one ever promised that life would be fair.