Hi! I was recently terminated from my job and thought I’d seek advice here.
Some background: This is in Ontario, Canada. It is a production job. It is unionized. I have passed my probation period 1 month prior to this whole thing starting. In the 4 weeks since I officially passed my probation period, I have not received any of the promised benefits even though I’ve inquired about them multiple times – I was just told to be patient. I have also not received the voucher for free workboots that was promised and really needed.
Reason for termination: I was terminated for theft. There is an automated open vendor that sells coffee and beverages that I visit everyday for 1-2 coffees and sometimes a sports drink. The coffees are 1$. Typically I pay for 5 or 6 coffees at a time so I can run down and make myself a coffee quickly. The day I was called in to HR, first day of the work week, I had already paid for 5 coffees that morning even though I didn’t have one yet. I was told that on a specific date a couple of employees saw me taking a coffee without paying for it (the Monday prior). I explained my process and showed them a keyword filtered bank statement with all my transactions for the prior 90 days. I told them there was no transaction that day but the day before there was a 12 dollar transaction and day after a 16 dollar transaction. In total that month (last 30 days) I had spent 75$.
They sent me home and said they will call me upon further investigation.
They called me in again for 15 or so minutes 2 days later. Saying they caught me taking the 1 dollar coffee without paying. I explained again what I did. Told them they can look at the cameras and compare with the sum of my transactions. Unfortunately, I had no receipts however. I even advised that I had paid for 5 coffees and didn’t have a single one of them. They said they didn't have to do the math because they saw me.
So an entire week passes unpaid, they call me precisely 8 days later, halfway into a booked vacation I had requested which they had accepted a month prior, to read me a notice of termination for the reasons of theft and an incident from a month prior they brought up where one of my tools were found (a knife) on the production line. When that happened my lead hand called me an idiot, some curse words and my fellow workers came to tell me that he was going to fire me but I received no disciplinary action, no verbal warning or written. Also, the tools belong to the company, and I shared mine with a new guy (first week) who was being trained by someone else so he had been using it when it was found in the line. I didn’t say anything at first as the lead hand went off on me, but went to HR the next day after people told me he was calling me a loser, a baby, and idiot and he was going to get rid of me. I told them to check the cameras and they’d see it wasn’t me using the tools (we share and exchange tools all the time because not everyone has them, especially new hires – could take months sometimes to receive them.) Anyway, things seemed to move on.
Then a couple weeks later, the theft accusation happened.
So, here I am, terminated in the middle of my vacation. They told me that a Union representative who had been around during my meetings with HR would contact me. I requested his phone number, they denied it, said he’d call me. He hasn’t contacted me at all.
The one firing me has had it out for me for some time, has always been rude to me the couple times I’ve seen him – saying things like certain areas are for employees only (to which I replied I am an employee) and trying to write me up for leaving the company property during lunch time, a verbal warning to which I apologized and told truthfully I had no idea we couldn’t leave at lunch, then followed up next day with another HR meeting saying they changed their mind and wanted me written up and signing some document. I refused because I didn’t know, I’ve left with multiple employees several times at lunch to eat and know others do it to and in fact every other employee who'd been there less than a year told me they didn't know that rule either.
So I’m asking this subreddit for advice. I am from Ontario, Canada. What should my next steps be? I was otherwise a good employee, often entrusted with the most important or difficult lines that others refused to work without complaint. I believe I was fired unjustly, been lied to several times, had words put in my mouth and met with incredible aggression and rudeness, and not paid for a week during their investigation.
Any advice?