What can I do about a wrongful termination?
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What can I do about a wrongful termination?
I have been an employee of a national retail chain store for about 3 months. It has a point system wherein if you get 4 points in your first 90 days you lose your job. Last Saturday halfway through my shift, I was called to the back office and was informed that I had accumulated 4 points so was fired. I felt they were erring but there wasn’t much I could do about it. A few days later, the assistant manager called and asked me to come in and speak to him, he then said there had been a mistake and I didn’t have 4 points and that he would like to offer me my job back,; I could start back on that Saturday. Apparently, I am not the only one this happened to. I spoke to 2 other employees and the same thing happened to them, however they each only missed 1 day, if any at all. Since I missed a whole week of work through no fault of my own, does the store have to pay me for those missed days because it was am error on their part? Also, when I went back to work they put me in a different department and gave me %1.5 less then what I was making. Can they do that?
Asked on April 2, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Mississippi
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Actually, there is nothing that you can do about this action unless it violated the terms of an employment contract or union agreement. Wrongful termination has to do with a claim of discrimination/retaliation, which you did not indicate to be the case in your situation. The fact is that most employment is "at will", which means that a company can set the conditions of work much as it sees fit. This includes who to fire and then re-hire and why. Actually, a worker can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. Accordingly, while seemingly unfair that you missed a week's pay due to no fault of your own, you have no recourse legal here.
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