Termination

[Apaleador]

California.

I found a new job at a restaurant as a cook where I had worked for 4 days. On the 4th day I was driving home after work and my car died. I walked back to my job and used their phone to call a tow truck and walked back to my car (Friday). While walking back I twisted my knee on a rock (it was dark, after 10pm). I thought nothing of it until the next morning when my knee was swollen and I couldn't walk on it (Saturday). I iced it and stayed off of it and since Saturday was my day off I figured it will be better come Sunday. Come Sunday morning it was worse. I couldn't even bend it so I called into work and told them I couldn't come in and explained what had happened and that I would see a doctor on Monday (my day off) and bring them the doctor's note. I called them 5 hours before I had to come to work (I called at 9am).

They called me back at 2pm and asked what the problem was and I told them again. This time they said they talked to my previous employer and that he said I was not dependable so my new employer fired me.

Can they do this?
What can I do?

 

[quincy]

Yes, your most recent employer can fire you. Yes, your former employer can give his opinion of you as an employee to your most recent employer. Opinion is free speech and nothing your former employer told your most recent employer seems to be, from what you have posted, anything but opinion.

It may seem unfair and unjust and it may just totally suck, especially with a busted car and an injured knee on top of it all, but nothing in what you have posted shows that either employer did anything illegal.

I guess what you do now is wait until your knee heals and your car is fixed and you look for another job.

 

[las365]

Even if the former employer's statement that OP was not a dependable employee was otentially slanderous and not simply opinion, it would be pretty hard to argue that it isn't true that you are not dependable when you are missing work only five days into your new job.

That was a tortured sentence, but I think you know what I mean.

 

[quincy]

That was pretty tortured , but it works.

 

[Apaleador]

What I don't understand is that my previous employers said they would rehire me and if I needed a letter of recommendation they would give me one. Policy states that whenever you leave the company (quit or fired) you have to wait 6 months before you can reapply for a job.

I spoke to my previous employers 2 months after I left and asked them if they would rehire me and they said yes. They said they had a position at that moment but since it hadn't been six months they couldn't rehire me but they would try to pull some strings to get me back early. Unfortunately, the committee turned them down and said I had to wait the full six months.

So now I am confused why they would say something that could jeopardize my job.

As for dependability, I was always there when they called. I stayed extra hours when they needed me to. I only missed 5 days in the one year that I worked for them.
2 days with the flu and 3 days after oral surgery to remove 2 broken teeth and clear up an abscess that had spread throughout my jaw.

 

[Apaleador]

Oh, and by the way. I had my knee checked and the doctor says I have advanced arthritis in my knee and shoulder and it is going to get worse. Bummer.

At least I can give the report to my ex-employer so he will at least know that I wasn't faking it just to take a day off.

 

[quincy]

I can't explain, obviously, why your former employer would say you were undependable if they felt you were dependable. Perhaps it was because you only worked for them a year before you left and they expected you to stay longer? I am assuming, of course, that you left your former employer of your own volition and you were not fired.

The most you can do at this point, however, is to get healthy and reapply for your old position when the six month period is up, and/or look for another job elsewhere. And I think it is a good idea to show the doctor's report to your most recent ex-employer. It will not, more than likely, get your job back, but it will demonstrate your true inability to work on the Sunday after your accident.