My son has worked for the past six years for a national company whose base is in South Carolina. He has had no conflicts with his job performance, and has two patents for the company. When he accepted employment, he explained, and was hired, with the understanding that he would be a few minutes late (10 minutes) on days he had his children. They cannot be dropped off at school until 7:30 and it takes 40 to 45 minutes on a good traffic day to get to his work. There have been no problems until now. Another employee with whom he has no contact at all, and whose work is not affected by these late starts, has complained to HR, and the same employee has complained about several others, creating a hostile work environment for them. ( I do not know the basis of those complaints ~ he just seems to have it in for everyone). My son has now been told by his current manager that unless he can gurantee that he will never be late again, that he is to turn in his resignation. My son cannot promise that and refused to sign the resignation. The guy who hired him acknowledges there was a verbal agreement, as long as he made up his time, which he regularly does, working more than a forty hour week. He also frequently is sent out of state for shows, and works from 8 o'clock until ten or eleven. The person who now tells him he does not care what he was told previously, and in spite of the acceptance of HR and all concerned for the past six years of being a few minutes late for two days a week, is black, and the person complaining about everyone is disabled. My son feels caught. He feels like he is the easy target here. Is this a breach of contract, even though it was verbal?

The old saying is that verbal agreements aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The law allows employers to change a person's hours, which is what this employer has done although I'll admit that they're going about it in a very heavy-handed fashion. If your son feels that he is being singled out for disparate treatment because of his race, he can file a complaint with the EEOC although the simple fact that the person who complained is of a different does not make a prima facie case for racial discrimination.