single father and held because of it

[mrwalterdampier]

i live in kentucky. i work in the retail enviroment. i am in middle managment. i was informed two years ago that i was going to be assigned the position of store director at my unit. during this time i was going through a divorce and i told my boss who in turn told me he had to tell his boss(regional vp). next thing i know the promotion was given to someone else. upon his first day at my location he (new store director) ask why i didn't get the position. he further stated that he heard i had gotten it and he had been in michigan because he was being promoted to store director in that state. i was told this same story by two other upper management staff members. I was told by my boss that the reason i did not get the job was because of the divorce. not just the divorce but another factor that i was a single parent as well and the company did not think i could handle all the responsibilty that would be on me. this happened two years ago. in my personel file there are no negative documentation on performance or any other thing for that matter. I have been with this company for 6 years now and won several awards within the company. i was 1997 supermarket of the year! now here we are 2 years later and i was told last monday that i had performance issues by my dd. this was the first i had heard of it especially since i just got promoted to another key position this past january. now i am told i was having problems running my supernarket and was moved to save my job and now that was in jepordy. i have sat in on two meetings with this dd who has flat out said that anyone who does not perform will be fired. I have no problem with this except i do not have any performance isues. I feel as if i were discriminated for being a single father. in the retail world that is a no no. I could use some advise.


Martin

 

[cbg]

Believe it or not, neither Federal nor Kentucky law forbids discrimination on the basis of marital status. (There are states that do, but Kentucky is not one of them.)

I find it infuriating that someone can be denied a promotion for this reason, but I can't find a law that was violated.

 

[Beth3]

There is no protection at the federal level for marital status. Some States prohibit discrimination based on marital status however. I don't know if KY is one of them but you can call your State's equal rights division and inquire.

If it is prohibited in Kentucky, then you should also ask what the statute of limitations is to file a complaint. I expect it's considerably shorter than two years and if it is, then you'll be out of luck and will be unable to file a complaint about the promotion you didn't get.

I think the connection between what was done two years ago and the performance issues that are presently being discussed with you is going to be very hard to make. If they decided they didn't want a single father working for them, it's quite unlikely they would have waited two whole years before creating a performance issue. That just doesn't make any sense.

I obviously can't say for certain but it's more likely than not that the director legitimately has concerns with your performance for some reason. He may be mistaken and you may not agree with him but it's his job to make those assessments. If you don't fully understand what his concerns are, then you should ask to meet with him to discuss this further.

 

[Beth3]

cbg, we're posting at the same time again.

Looks like we have an answer on whether Kentucky prohibits discrimination based on marital status. I agree with cbg that the reason they gave for denying you the promotion was totally ridiculous but apparently it was legal.