For the past year and change, I was employed at a small, family-owned chain of laundromats. On Friday, I was fired for what my manager called disparaging remarks, threats and a passive-aggressive attitude. I will admit that I was known to complain on occasion when my workload was overwhelming and I also communicated that I was unhappy that my hours had been cut, so I assumed these were the disparaging remarks and poor attitude in question. So-called threats, however, did not sound like anything I would have done, so I asked my manager what she meant by that. Below, I will explain her reasoning.
A few months ago, I noticed we had no safety data sheets whatsoever for a number of hazardous chemicals that were regularly used by us employees. These chemicals included bleach as well as industrial degreasers and peroxide, which can be corrosive to skin and can become explosive or expel toxic fumes when mixed. I let the manager know that it was extremely important to have these and that she was placing the business at an enormous liability by not having them and that their absence was an OSHA violation. This, according to her, was one “threat” that contributed to her decision to terminate my employment. She did, begrudgingly, acquire safety data sheets for said chemicals, but they are only available at one of the two different locations where those chemicals are present.
The other so-called “threat” occured a couple of weeks ago and initially resulted in my hours being cut. By that juncture, I had worked over 100 hours in overtime. The state where this occurred requires overtime to be compensated at 1.5× my base wage, and my employer had been paying me my base wage with no overtime premium, which is illegal. I brought this to my manager's attention, saying that I wouldn't blow the whistle but that it would be in her best interest to pay me properly before the state caught her on their own. My hours were then cut to a part-time amount. I let my manager know that i could not support myself working part-time and gave notice that I would begin looking for another job. This was the “last straw” and I was terminated 2 days later.
The manager who terminated me was careful not to include any of this information in my discharge paper work and made sure that her records indicated that i was simply let go for being mouthy, but I feel like I must have some rights to exercise here. I would also like to include that while I worked full-time for this business for over a year, I was never offered benefits and this is also illegal in the state where this occurred. I am hoping it is possible to hold this business accountable in some way so that future employees do not get burned like I did.