Termination or is it Discrimination?

[rva]

Two weeks ago a contracting agency phoned me regarding a position as a system engineer at a very well known Governmental center here in my town. I begin work after taking the entire necessary test needed (such as drugs and finger prints). Since the job was through a contracting agency the office (gov) should not be involved and received telephone call regarding my wages to be lowered since they are unable to pay the headhunters fee. Confused as I was I phoned the contracting agency and asked them what it was all about and they of course were very upset that this matter was discussed with me and not them. Nevertheless, I began work and right away there was gossip through the office and I continued working. I was not given a job description or a project plan and began to work on my own going in blind. First day of work I was thrown hardware issue on my lap and I began inquiring about matters such as who has manipulated with the hardware so that I can fix the problem. I was there for 6 days and in which only 3&1/2 actual days spent in the office and was in training rest of the time. I was called into the office the following Monday and questioned. His or her reasoning for calling me into the office was that I accused someone of breaking the hardware. Which is not what I had said and my supervisor went over the pollicies and I continued my work only to be advised by my supervisor that I must stay late to do a system patch and since I am a exempt employee I will not receive overtime. The following day I stayed 3 hours after work and did the necessary patches to fix the problem. The following day I was called into the office and was told " I was not the right fit for the department". Shocked as I was I questioned the ethics of their conclusion and said how one can judge this since I have only worked for 3&1/2 actual days and 1 over time day. They informed me that I had not done any mis-conduct or it has nothing to do with me personally or my abilities to do my job. But their expectations were higher. I again quesitons what expectation? I was never given any. The conclusion to this story is that I found out later that I was terminated because of the head hunter fees and this was their way out of the situation. I now can not work for the government office again for 1 year nor can I use the experience on my resume and I am professionally insulted.
I wonder if this is discrimination or ?

 

[ed]

There are two things involved here: (1) what happened, and (2) what you can prove. The reason they gave you for terminating your employment is a valid reason. If you could prove that they lied about it, you might have a case, but it does not sound like you have enough financial loss out of this to make a claim worth while in a practical sense. If you do have a significant loss because of this, you might have a claim against the head hunter: it sounds like they MAY have been negligent in sending you to a place which was unable to pay the fee. It depends on what they lead the employer to believe.