Was terminated.. Have questions on it.
Hello,
In September of 2004 I was terminated for buying cigarettes for a minor. It was an honest mistake, I was outside and the kid was crying, saying that his dad had beat him up. He didn't want to go inside to buy them so I asked him if he was 18, and he said that he was. I should have carded him, but honestly I sympathized with kid and didn't push the matter. The issue I am having with it is that I clocked out and took off my work vest before I bought them. I went outside and gave them to him and his mother was there with him and she obviously got angry and called corporate and complained. I took full responsibility for it and they fired me. When I brought up the fact that I was off the clock and shouldn't she had brought it up with the cops, they implied to me that she wanted something done and they were going to fire me for it. My question for this part is, was it wrong on their part because I was off the clock? Secondly, it has been almost five months since I have gotten a job and I couldn't understand why, with the almost two years of retail experience that I had accquired. I was told that what happened wouldn't bar me for employment elsewhere. I found out yesterday that the reason why I haven't gotten a job is because the store manager has been telling employers that I was a horrible employee, I was mean to customers, and that he had been called in numerous times for my disruptive behavior, and that I shouldnt be hired. I am honestly angered by this, because I was nice to every single customer who came through our doors, and if that were the case, why hadn't I been fired a long time ago? I have numerous ex-coworkers, managers, and regular customers who could vouch that I wasnt like that and that I was an excellent worker. The store manager himself said when I was terminated that it wasn't his choice and he hated to see me go because I was one of his best employees. I am wondering if I have any sort of case, or if there is something else that I can do. If you could get back to me at some point through my email or my phone number to discuss this matter, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
Answers (1)
I am assuming that you do not have a written contract that provides you with any promise of job security. If so, then you are an at-will employee, like most employees in the private sector. This means that your employer doesn't need a reason to fire you.
I am also assuming from your question that you worked for the store where you bought the cigarettes. Not that it matters, but it means that your job involves selling cigarettes to the public, which adds to your employer's justification for its action. Firing you for committing an act that is against the law (contributing to the delinquency of a minor, ARS 13-3613; furnishing tobacco to minor, 13-3622) is not a wrongful discharge. The fact that you did it on your own time makes no difference. If your employer needed a reason to terminate you, this reason will probably be enough.
A claim of defamation requires proof of a false statement published to a third party taht causes injury to your reputation. Had the employer merely said you were terminated for providing cigarettes to a minor, the statement would be true, and truth is a defense to a claim of defamation. The statements attributed to your former manager go beyond this. The statement that you were a horrible employee is probably not capable of being proven true or false, because it is a qualitative opinion, not a factual statement. The cigarette incident alone would probably be enough to sustain the opinion that you were less than satisfactory. The statements about being mean to customers and about his being called in on account of your disruptive behavior are capable of being proven false, if they are false. In most defamation cases, you have the dual problem of proving what was actually said to the prospective problem, and the problem of proving that it was false, which usually means proving a negative - i.e. that something didn't happen. Proof that you were nice to 99 customers does not prove that you didn't insult the 100th guy. Also, if he merely reported the true statement that you were fired for selling cigarettes to a minor, would this have been less damaging to your reputation?
As a practical matter, you aren't likely to find an attorney who would want to take your case, and anyone who took it would charge you a lot more than an unemployed store clerk could likely afford, or that you could hope to recover from a jury. Sorry.
posted by Francis Fanning | Feb 1, 2005 7:06 PM [EST]
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