Paid Paramedic with a County Rescue Squad.

Was terminated for not attending an employee meeting due to issues with childcare - single parent - no one to care for the children during meeting. Meeting not during regular work schedule.

There was a verbal warning during the meeting in which he missed and then he was terminated by letter saying he missed the meeting. No other warnings or issues with employment previously. They said because he had signed the handbook that that was notification.

Others who missed the meeting for going out to dinner for someones birthday and were not terminated.

Is this possible without any other warnings?:confused:

File for unemployment the termination is arbitrary,contact an attorney to see if any of your rights were violated.
JoeC

While I'm certainly not going to tell anyone not to speak with an attorney and I agree that he should file for unemployment, there is no law in any state that requires any warnings at all before an employee can be terminated. An employer is not obligated to excuse an employee from a mandatory meeting, whether it is held on a "day off" or not, because of child care issues. Mandatory is mandatory.

The fact that they allowed others to miss the meeting does not bind them to allow your friend to miss the meeting. Maybe they asked first and the employer could only allow so many people could miss; maybe the dinner was in some way business related. But he does not have a "right" to miss the meeting for personal reasons without repercussions.

The post is to short to find a violation,but since he was treated differently from the other employees there may be something an attorney can work with.
JoeC

Maybe. But I don't think he should count on it. It is not illegal to treat employees differently unless it is for a prohibited reason.

We don't know if its not a prohibited reason from this short post. Where there is smoke,there may be fire.
JoeC

I'm not disagreeing. There MAY be fire. There may NOT be fire. But given that there are a great many legal reasons to treat an employee differently and only a very few illegal reasons, I'm assuming that the most likely scenario is that the difference is legal. You are assuming that the difference is illegal. I would rather the employee go into the attorney's office believing there is no claim and, if there is one, be pleasantly surprised. You seem determined to make him believe he has a valid claim and set him up for a potential disappointment if there is not.

Since we both agree that only an attorney can say for certain, however, I suggest we leave it at that.

. You seem determined to make him believe he has a valid claim and set him up for a potential disappointment if there is not.
Since we both agree that only an attorney can say for certain, however, I suggest we leave it at that.
No. I said "contact an attorney to see if your rights were violated", I never said he had a case. We already know the fireing is arbitrary,he was fired others were not for the same infraction. You seem determined to read things into my posts that are not there. So your misreading my post,so lets just leave it at that.
JoeC

Much as it pains me to say, I have to agree with Joe on this one.

One person was fired for missing a meeting. A group of people was not fired for missing the same meeting.

The one person fired missed the meeting because of parenthood. The persons not fired were partying together.

To me, this sounds like the person fired was being discriminated against for being a parent. While not a standard prohibited discrimination, I certainly wouldn't want to be the lawyer defending it in open court.

IF the employee was fired for being a parent, I would agree too (although parental status is not protected by either Federal or North Carolina law).

However, I'm still not reading it that way. The poster had been notified by way of the handbook that missing these meetings was a termination offense. There is no suggestion that the employee asked permission to miss the meeting.

I do agree with Joe that we don't have enough information to say for certain. But given the facts we do have, I can come up with quite a few permutations explaining the difference in treatment, only one of which would give the poster legal recourse.

Should the poster check with an attorney? Sure. Does the poster have a slam dunk case? Not remotely.

Which is why there are no absolutes in a court of law.

Courts are made up of people. Therefore, people can look at an incident in an infinite number of ways with distinctly different conclusions.

There have been people that were watched pulling the trigger on a helpless victim and been found innocent for outside causes.

All things are possible.

Much as it pains me to say, I have to agree with Joe on this one.
Hallelujah Do You See The Light! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE1LNQ7ZSM)
JoeC

I didn't say it didn't hurt. :rolleyes:

Good point, Jeff, as many of your posts are!!!! Are you a boss? If so, you sound like one of them boss's that, if you come in, do your job, show respect, you will be treated also with respect and paid well. If not, out the door you go. You sound like you don't put up with any BS in your workplace. Ok sorry for going off topic, but been reading plenty of these posts, trying to educate myself, and that was the impression I got of you. I hope you are taking this as a complement, the way it is meant.

Of course I do.

Thanks. I do love my teams... both civillian and government... and have always thought that clear black and white expectations go a long way.

There has to be a clear boss/employee relationship. That being said, I also know my people as, well, people. If you care about your employees, encourage them to exceed their own expectations and laugh while you do it, you will have a core of employees in your network that can always be counted upon.

Thanks for reminding me. I have some emails to old friends to get out.

I will also tell Jeff, since I think he thinks I'm mad at him at the moment, that I'm not; that he is a valuable contributor here; and that I hope he stays a long time.

I will also tell Jeff, since I think he thinks I'm mad at him at the moment, that I'm not; that he is a valuable contributor here; and that I hope he stays a long time.

Why would I think you are mad at me?

A) I don't hold a grudge longer than a commercial break; and,
B) I can wholeheartedly be angry with someone and consider them a friend.

I ain't going anywhere.

One most post before we leave "Jeffapaloosa".

As I tell my employees when they ask "are you mad at me?".... Trust me, if I was mad at you, there wouldn't be a doubt in your mind.

Glad to know it. Guess I was reading things that weren't there. ;) :cool: :)

Glad to know it. Guess I was reading things that weren't there. ;) :cool: :)


Does that mean that Jeffapoolosa is over?