Hi~
I am from Florida. I worked for a medical office as a supervisor for 3 years. As many are aware our state faced 4 hurricanes and one of them affected the area where I worked by lack of electricity for several days. As a result all our vaccines were damaged. I was told by the purchasing dept to waste the vaccines and send a count of how many doses with the lot #s and expiration dates. And so I did. We spoke on the phone numerous times, went over the lists and numbers several times as well. We even discussed these lists on a visit the purchasing manager payed us to deliver more vaccines. A wk later I receive a call from him asking me if I saved the vaccines- my answer was "No. You told me to waste them and that I did- now they are gone", He said .."Apparently we need them to get reimbursed". Five- six weeks later they tell me they have to let me go because the money for the vaccines was not able to be recuperated from insurance. There was no policy broken and I was never written up- all they said was "in the future...". Now I have no job, no ins for me and my kids and to top it off, they won't pay my PTO and that was close to $600!!
Can they do that?

In most cases, an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason. However, they cannot if the termination violates a law, such as discrimination or retaliation for protecting your rights. If you don't believe discrimination or retaliation exists and you didn't have an employment agreement (most employees don't), then you don't have a legal basis upon which to demand your job back or require compensation in lieu of.

However, since you were following instructions, you may wish to plead for leniency from your former employer. Send a letter to your former employer via certified mail, return receipt required. (That way, you will have proof that you sent the letter.) Explain your side of the story. Request consideration of reemployment, pointing out your good employment record with them (if one exists). Be as specific as possible, listing dates, etc. It will help your credibility.

If you try for reemployment and it is denied, request that they note that your position is a job elimination, rather than a termination for violation of company practices, etc. It will help you in your future job search. Also, being let go for job elimination will help you in getting unemployment.

Finally, on the issue of PTO, your employer does not need to pay you for unused PTO unless they said that they would at the time it was accrued.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Can they still label it as "violation of company practices" when in fact I did what I was told and there is no (or was- maybe they changed it by now) written policy to violate?

Yes, as company practices does not need to be in writing.

Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck.