Dear Labor Talk .First of all I want to thank you for making me part of

your community.I have some very inportant issues I need to find out
about
and I hope you or maybe somone in this community can help me with them.I

have been employed for a company for 5 years now ,and for the past 4
years I
have been the manager .Now this company is a retail store and I run
the
store which consist of 8 employees besides myself.When I first became
the
manager I went to a training class for a month and during that time I
was
not allowed to work in the store ,while I was gone the employees did
nothing
as far as work was concerned,we got a delivery truck of merchandise
every
week which was anywhere from 15 to 17 hundred cases of product in which
should have been put out on the shelves but was not.Now the district
manager
I had then was well aware of this but did nothing about it ,when I
returned
back to the store after my training which was on October 3rd of that
first
year I had to work everyday from open to close up untill dec,24th
without a
day off,My district manager back then told since I was on a manager and
my
hours did not count I had to work like this ,Well I thought he was
right
so I did it,Now for the first 3 years we unloaded the trucks manually
ourselves .I finally got things caught up but now I have a situation
again
.I have a new district manager and he has been giving me a very rough
time
.You see ever since I stepped foot in this store as a cashier the
managers
before me has always had problems with the stockroom being so full
because
they send too much stuff and there is no room on the sales floor to put
it,but when I got the managers position I always managed to get what I
could
out and kept the rest in the stockroom neatly as possible.Well my no
matter
what I did it hasnt been good enough for this new district manager and
he
kept pushing me and putting so much pressure on me that I was forced
to go
in at 4 in the morning by myself and once again working 7 days a week
with
no time off ,Ever since I took this managers position I have worked 60
to 70
hours a week .I was told training that we as managers the hours for
salery
workers were no more than 48 hours a week .but yet to keep from losing
my
job I was working those hours .But anyway I recently got sick from
working
all them hours ,My doctor thought I was having a heart attack but after
he
examined me he diagnosed my illness from exhaustion and anxiety and took
me
off work for 6 weeks .this was in aug.3rd of this year and while I was
off
the assistant manager had fallen behind on everything from paperwork to

getting the trucks out again so when I went back I was facing 6 weeks of

work once again.The first week I was back my district manager came into
the
store and told me that he was putting my store on the help list which
means
I was givin 20 extra hours to get caught up on what my assistant got
behind
on.On sat,sept, 23rd after I had already done the payroll for the week
my
distrct manager left me a voice mail telling me to bill those 20 extra
hours
to another store in my district but when my assistant took the message
she
forgot to tell me ,well when he found out that I did not get to do that
he
took all those extra hours back and gave me a write-up and told me I
had
only 2 weeks to get everything caught up which got behind while I was
off or
I would be fired.First of all I know that if I would have charged them
hours
to another store that is fraud and the second thing I told him I should
not
be held responsible for what did not get done while I was off,but he
told me
that since I was the manager it was,My assistant even got behind on the
paper work so here I was working 7 days a week trying to get this done
plus
get our trucks out every week .Well he came in to the store last week
and
gave me the choice to step down from manager to assitant and transfer to

another store which would be like a half hour drive or I was fired cause
I
could not get everything caught up.The whole time I was off my assistant

would call me and brag to me when he was in the store telling her how
good
of a job she was doing then she would say to me that he likes her but
dont
like me.While I was off the sales dropped and shelves were empty plus
the
store was always a mess .infact I know a customer wrote into the home
office
and made a complaint about how bad the store was while I was off .But
instead of doing anything about it my boss turned his head and gave my
assistant a raise .now you tell me whats wrong with this picture.cause
now I
am fired for what was out of my control and I worked 60 to 70 hours a
week
again trying to get done what he wanted,when he came in all he looked
for
was the things I was not done with but not once did he look at what I
have
gotten done,he even took pictures of the negative things but not of the
positive.I am sorry this letter is so long and I have alot more to say
but I
will stop for now,What I need to know is what my rights are here ,I have

never been paid overtime for all those hours worked and I feel I was
fired
for something I didnt do,Now I am still working there cause he told me
he
has to bring in the right proper papers which will come from the home
office for him to have me sign .I even wrote a letter to the home office

about this cause I feel he has harrassed me but they havent responded
back
.Inhope you or someone in this community can help me
I will wait for your reply.thank you for your time


karen