My mom works a warehouse job for a prominent meal kit company. They own literally every other meal kit company, but pretend not to (you know who I'm talking about).
She's been working there for 4 years. After about a year of working there, they asked her to take a manager position for a $1 raise, she declined. They gave her the responsibilities anyway and skipped out on the raise.
After awhile, they switched her position. The manager in her new area didn't like her and the fact that she wasn't chipper. He had to reprimand her for a mistake and wrote her up for it a month later, but company policy states that write ups have to occur within 7 days of the incident. HR threw out the write up, only for him to replace it with another one (for a made up incident) the same day.
The manager is implementing stricter rules in an effort to get her to quit. She asked to be moved back to her previous area and they said they'd be happy to oblige, but she'd have to take a $2 pay cut.
My mom got a labor attorney, but he wants her to stay employed with them while he collects information and comes up with a plan, even though she wants to resign. I'm not a lawyer, but I feel like he shouldn't be asking her to stay there? In addition to the issues she's personally faced, she saw a coworker get assaulted by another employee, only to be fired for defending herself. The woman had hot water thrown on her and was fired, while the woman who threw the water got to keep her job. Also, they have so much food waste that it's insane. Especially since the point of these companies is to minimize food waste and make cooking at home easier.
Thus far, my mom's productivity has dropped by about 80% (on purpose) and she's using up her PTO while she waits for the lawyer.
Do you guys have any advice for us? Do you think she should stay like the lawyers advising?
P.S. please go shopping and cook your food at home if you can. The only thing worse than a meal kit company is a food delivery service.
EDIT: Neither my mother nor I are paying for this attorney. The work is currently pro bono. Even if I was paying the attorney, I'd like to get another opinion since people here often tell folks to call the department of labor and/or seek representation. Is this what usually happens?