Fired employee sues, says co-worker tried to punch him
March 13, 2009 by Fred HosierPosted in: Lawsuits, Special Report, Uncategorized
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Employees who complain about workplace safety and then are fired can successfully sue to get their jobs back, along with back pay and benefits. But is an unlanded punch from a co-worker enough to make a workplace unsafe?
A federal court ruled recently in such a workplace violence case. Here’s what happened:
Cesar Ferrer sued his former employer, T.L. Cannon Management Corp., claiming he was fired for complaining about his perceived lack of safety in the workplace.
Ferrer says he was fired after telling his manager that a co-worker threw a punch at him and missed, and that the co-worker assaulted another employee about a year earlier.
Connecticut law provides grounds for a wrongful discharge claim when an employee is fired for refusing to work in conditions posing an “objectively substantial risk of death, disease or serious bodily injury.”
The company argued that Ferrer didn’t meet that standard in his claim.
While the court said the danger posed to an employee by an unstable co-worker may be sufficiently serious in exceptional cases to satisfy the objective standard, Ferrer didn’t satisfy the standard.
The court said Ferrer must show more than this, such as that his co-worker had a known propensity for violence and specifically threatened him with serious bodily harm.
So the federal court dismissed Ferrer’s claim, but it did give him 21 days to file an amended complaint. No word from his lawyer on what he plans to do.
What is an employer’s responsibility to its employees when it comes to potentially violent co-workers? Let us know in the Comments Box below.
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Tags: assault, violent co-workers, workplace violence, wrongful discharge
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March 16th, 2009 at 11:45 am
OSHA requires that an employer provide a safe working environment. This includes taking measures to address the possibility of violence in the work place. It’s possible that a violation of the OSHA standard is brewing.
March 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
Prior to my days as safety manager, I had a supervisor go ‘ballistic’ and swing at me. Did I feel threated? You betcha! He assigned my work, approved or disapproved my vacation, and oh, yes, wrote my performance reviews.
What made him mad, (besides an alcohol problem), I had turned on a pump that was scheduled to be switched as regular operation, that he, my supervisor, was working on without locking out at a remote location.
It didn’t take many more similar outbursts directed at me, for me to ‘move on’. Management was pretty ‘old school’, prior to our current enlightened human resources laws.
What do other think? If this happened to an employee in my current company, I would have ‘that conversation’ with the supervisor and HR manager.
There really isn’t any “just a little workplace violence”.
Michael Tuttle
Safety & Environmental Manager
Big Creek Lumber Company
March 16th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Where is the line between assault (missed swing) and actual injury?
For purposes of this exercise, I’m OK with drawing the lkine at intent. From what little is provided, I believe the employee who took the swing acted with deliberate intent and that is enough to convince me that serious physical harm could happen and was intended when the swing was launched. His past documented history of physical violence demonstrates a serious problem - serious enough that where I work one instance of taking a swing will result in immediate dismissal.
The employee with a violent streak now has at least two strikes on him. What may seem like a minor skirmish to some can easily be a serious injury to another. No mention is made of the size of the individuals involved, so I can only make assumptions about weight classes. No mention is made of any pre-existing conditions on the part of Ferrer that could result in an unquestionably serious injury if a blow were landed in the right location. No mention is made of precisely what was done to make Ferrer feel safe at work, the implication being he was probably told to “work it out” with the violent co-worker.
Perhaps an appropriate standard to apply here might be “What if this happened at a school?” Should my workplace be any different from my child’s school when it comes to physical violence or the realistic threat of it? If yes, why? If not, then why must I tolerate threats and clear demonstration of the intent of physical violence? Do I have to wait for the blow to land and create serious physical injury to be protected? If so, then we have a real problem with laws we all thought provided a safe workplace.
The bottom line is, if an employee feels threatened at work, there is a serious issue that must be addressed - and not by firing the employee that feels threatened. I am confident that other state or federal laws already exist to get this former employee the compensation rightfully deserved.
Would I consider taking my old job back under these circumstances? Not after the way this employer responded. I’d be suing for full compensation from the date of discharge until the point in time that I am making equal or greater income. I’d be suing for loss of [fill in the blank]. Then I’d add punitive damages to the maximum extent allowed by law. And don’t forget attorney fees & associated legal expenses.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
So I wonder if the court would have ruled the same way if a pipe or hammer was being held in his hand when he swung and “missed”…would it meet the criteria then? All the courts “perceived” inconsistencies is part of today’s many problems for employers and compliance with the laws. Go figure!
March 16th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I belive you said it best about a supervisor they assign the work, approve everything that you do and say good or bad things about you on the annual reviews.
I think that because supervisors have all the power and they have influence on others that standing up to them is scary. Yeah, sure you can have a meeting with H.R. and document what happened and feel good about doing it but when you leave H.R.’s office, its just you and him.
I think that there needs to be more training for supervisors and management almost like a certification to be in these posotions. You just can’t have anyone in these positions because you deal with people everyday. You really don’r need to know about the product as a supervisor you just need the people building the product to complete the tasks that you ask of them.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Any employee of this magnitude should be suspended pending further investigation. If he is cleared from his investigation then he will receive pay for the time he had missed. If he is, then he should be terminated. It is an employer’s responsibility to provide a safe workplace and there should be no repercussion to any employee who reports it.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I had two similar occurrences in my days in the mill; both involved hourly employees that were high. One tried to run a jackhammer up my steel toe shoe up my leg. the other tried to hit me with the hook of the overhead crane on several different occassions. Management looked the other way. and in the first case, actuially told the crew that i had accused the employee of smoking a little tea. (There were racial differences in both cases that did not favor me.)
This resulted in a “showdown ” in the first case, where the balance of crew took my side and shamed the doper. He ended up quitting and joining the air force that week. In the second case, it rresulted in my wearing of very bulky clothes to conceal an unamed “means of protection.” (I had learned from the first that telling the foreman makes situations worse, not better.) I kept ajournal in my locker and one at home that told all of the events in case there were fatalities.
When I stopped being afraid of the second guy, he stopped his major attempts, and I still have the article from the front page of the sunday paper that told how he killed his wife and daughter when he killed himself.
Until management figures out that they need to take this stuff absolutely seriously and fire these prone to violent outbursts, management will be lucky if they only have wrongful discharge suits to deal with. My employer could have had multiple bodybags.
I can assure you that when I became plant manager my guys learned early on what zero tolerance for loud, violent outbursts means. I never had a third guy go loud or physical.
milo
March 16th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Workplace violence has never been a problem for us here, thankfully. But I still address the issue at least annually in one or more of my monthly safety meetings. OSHA, Cal/OSHA and other agencies provide a lot of information and resources on the subject. A safety meeting that addresses this subject at least once a year may go a long way in insulating the employer against an unreasonable case. A little effort that just may provide a big payoff. What’s the saying “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure?”
March 16th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
While the courts favored this time against the plaintiff that does not necessarily mean that the employer was free from the potential for civil or criminal liabilities under the current OSHA Standard.
As was stated earlier by several individuals, the employee is held fully responsible for providing a safe and healthy work place. The employer had a responsibility to investigate the original assault (if and when reported) which happened prior to Mr. Ferrer’ attack. By not investigating the previous attack the employer could be putting themselves at significant liability by not investigating the attack.
That said, it would be “the right thing to do” for the attorney in fact to appeal the case to a higher court and seek to obtain further information and records which show the employers continued negligent behavior.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
What are they doing continuing to employ an individual who has been violent in the past to start with? Obviously this employer’s standard of “safe” is not the standard I use for any employee I consider to be of value. Once you accept the premise that employees are of little value and therefore disposable, it’s not hard to move on to “it’s OK if they damage each other.”
March 16th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I cannot believe that an employer was foolish enough to fire an employee who complained about another worker. If that is truly the case, then they deserve whatever they get. There was no mention about any sort of reprimand for the punching employee nor any sort of meeting to discuss the incident with either of the employees. Sounds pretty lame. However, I have terminated employees who immediately claimed it was for some other reason just because they were mad. This happens too many times and employers need to document and show proof of the final occurrence that caused the termination of that employee.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I must be missing something. This man was fired for “telling” his boss that a co-worker threw a punch at him and missed, and that the co-worker assaulted another employee about a year earlier. If the event indeed took place, I don’t understand why he would be fired for simply telling his boss the truth…
March 16th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
It is of most importance to handle aggresive/violent behavior with a zero tolerance policy. Eventhough I am in an “Union shop” there is no room to negotiate this policy whether it stems from an employer to employee, employee to employee or employee to employer. I strongly recomment any manager to keep track of arguments, as they will be surprised how often it is the same offender in multiple situations. Hind site is 20/20 and one can always look back and say: “Oh yeah, he has done this before….I should have caught it them”
There are many courses available to curve such behaviors that actually do work. I once had an empoyee that was an “A type” of employee. He was fast, accurate, punctual and reliabale. Sadly he had tendencies of loud and agressive outbursts that finally led to a confrontation with another employee. During the disciplinary hearings, the Union recommended to give the employee another chance with the condition that the employee enroll and succesfully complete a “Behavioral Management” class. At first I was hesitant and skeptical to believe that it might work, but I also realized that I may lose a very good employee if I resisted. I agreed and 2-3 weeks later I had a new attitude to this process. He was able to channel his aggresive behavior and by that same token we knew we could improve our workforce by understanding that early recognition is a must and swift action must take place in order to prevent another clash that may not turn out favorably.
Michael Messier
March 16th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
What I’m confused about is why this guy was fired in the first place? For complaining about a guy that took a swing at him? If this was the reason for termination, then I can’t understand how a termination could stick. My understanding is that you would have to have done something a heck of a lot more serious than complain about a co-worker to get fired. If just complaining is justifiable to terminate, then why in the world is the guy who took the swing still working?!?! Sounds a little backward to me…
March 16th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
While there is no specific OSHA ruling (I can’t believe this guy sued over a “safety” issue; maybe it should have been an HR/Hostile Work Environment issue?), there was a letter of interpretation issued by OSHA as early as 1992 that stated:
In a workplace where the risk of violence and serious personal injury are significant enough to be “recognized hazards,” the general duty clause [specified by Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA Act)] would require the employer to take feasible steps to minimize those risks. Failure of an employer to implement feasible means of abatement of these hazards could result in the finding of an OSHA Act violation.
But since he was fired for reporting a “safety” issue, shouldn’t he be protected under “whistleblower” protection? And shouldn’t the prior assault incident (if it were true) serve to satisfy the requirement of proving a propensity for violence on the part of the co-worker? There’s more here than was reported in this article. I agree with Steve, though…intent follows the bullet (merely a legal term)….or in this case, the swinging punch.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Wonder if a judge would be so dismissive if someone in court threw a punch at them?
Funny how there are double standards for everyone in this country. It’s all “who you know”…
March 16th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Reprinted without permission from the OSHA Fact Sheet on Workplace Violence dated 2002.
“What is workplace violence?
Workplace violence is violence or the threat of violence against workers. It can occur at or outside the workplace and can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and homicide, one of the leading causes of job-related deaths.”
“What protections does OSHA offer?
The Occupational Safety and Health Act’s (OSH Act) General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace for all workers covered by the OSH Act. Employers who do not take reasonable steps to prevent or abate a recognized violence hazard in the workplace can be cited.”
Having researched and authored our company’s emergency action plan, the act of throwing a punch at another individual at work, whether or not it connects, is in my opinion an act of workplace violence. An employer has a obligation to respond appropriately to an act or threat of workplace violence. I would also think the courts should too. We’re not a hockey team so we just can’t throw the combatant(s) in the sin bin (penalty box) for 5-minutes on a fighting major and than let them go back to work.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
As an owner of a small company I had an incident over 5 years ago with an employee that I hired. He had anger management problems which were surfacing. I offered to pay for counseling and gave him three names of certified counselors. This offer was in writing and was reiterated to him over three months for a total of 6 times. On a job site his supervisor (my employee also) was “swung at” in the break room. His supervisor was quick enough to move his body and only sustained minor scratches to his knuckles as they hit a concrete wall. I escorted the “Angry” employee out of the building where by he was immediately terminated for work place violence. In Maryland they are very liberal with regard to unemployment benefits. The arbitrator agreed with my decision but awarded him unemployment benefits anyway. He has since lost other jobs for similar or same reasons.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I met a guy in the military who had been in the military about a year, when he was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw bone and he had to have part of the jaw bone removed. He got hit in the jaw in his sophmore year of high school while playing basketball by an elbow. His jaw never really totally healed. A punch can ruin and even take a life. Something more drastic should have been done about the guy that threw the punch
March 17th, 2009 at 8:46 am
The guy who threw the punch and missed is very fortunate that Mr Ferrer didn’t shoot him claiming self defense, considering the the punch thrower has a previous record of work violence.
March 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Was the thrown punch (and previous assault) witnessed by anyone else? If not, it’s “he said/he said”. And if the previous assault did happen, was it reported?
There’s a good deal of info missing, here.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Agreed, there is a lot of information missing here.
If however, anyone can say, oh yeah “(Jim, Bob, Fred, etc.)” again, the employer has a lawsuit waiting to happen and should have taken action previously. There are always a thousand reasons why the matter should be dismissed/swept under the rug, but none hold water when it comes to workplace safety.
March 17th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
A second thought, this nearly unbelieveable incident may be because the employer did not document the first incident and was trying to avoid the possibility of answering “hard” questions.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I agree with Sarah Jo re: missing info! No mention of provocation - what did the “punchee” do/say that may have provoked a short-tempered “punchor”? Throwing a punch is unacceptable and inappropriate behavior - but there are groups of folks (employees) who deem it an appropriate reaction to some types of provacation. As a long-time employer, my sense would be that the foregoing fails to sufficiently address the situation - can’t imagine one of my employees throwing a punch without provocation. Bad judgement, bad reaction, of course - but there usually are 2 sides to any story!
March 18th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Kay, maybe the punchee (as you call him) got a promotion over the punchor (as you call him) for doing a better job, got a higher wage increase, or something positive. It doesn’t always have to be a negative provocation to set off anyone short-tempered, we just don’t know because info is missing.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Based on what was said, it sure sounds like assault which is possible even if contact is not made. What kind of court was it and what was the nature of the complaint? Since he is allowed to modify and resubmit his complaint it is possible that the issues were poorly framed. Did this ever go to the Osha Review Commission, or maybe the author of this article called it a federal court when it was the OSHRC?
March 18th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I work for a major Chemical Co. with two Unions. There are only two ways an employee can be dismissed - stealing and a physical confrontation. Clearly, that is unacceptable behavior in the workplace.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Firstly, if an employee of mine takes a swing at another person they will be fired, not the person reporting the incident.
Secondly, the court did state that such an event would constitute an unsafe workplace, but they appear to have decided the allegation (of termination based on this report) was not proven.
Thirdly, while there are some cavemen out there, who in today’s world would be so stupid as to fire an employee for reporting an incident like this?
In short, I believe the court found for the employer based on other evidence of justifiable termination. Perhaps no report was filed with the employer until after termination. Perhaps the court felt this was a malicious lawsuit by a disgruntled former employee.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:06 am
I am the plaintiff in the case mentioned. First of all I would like to thank everyone for their input and/or support. I worked for Applebee’s which is a TL Cannon Co. at the time of the incident. The punch was thrown because I told my co-worker that orders were coming in and he wasn’t cooking them because he was busy talking to another co-worker about the argument that he had just had with his girlfriend and I interrupted him by doing so. He then came around the divider to where I was retrieving dinner plates and tried to punch me while I had plates in my hand. He then said ” Had I caught you it would have rocked your s##t”. I complained on the spot and was told by the general manager to “Stop whining and get back to work”. I felt like it was not being taken seriously, so I informed him that I was going home to file a police report, and I did. I called the District Manager and informed him on what happened as well on the same day and he tried to discourage me from filing a police report. HR claims that they had did an investigation starting on Wednsday March 5th 2008 until Friday March 7th and found my claim to be without merit and I was handed my termination papers on that day. I cashed out my 401 k that week and found that my termination date stated on my 401k paperwork that I received from TL Cannons corporate office was March 2nd 2008, and the incident happened on March 1st 2008, which means they made the decision to fire me before the “investigation ” had even begun. At the hearing we had they submitted paper work for previous incidents that I had supposedly had, write ups for tardiness, not showing up to work,etc. I then rebutted those write ups, one of the write ups was for November 22nd 2007 for cursing at a manager, but I didn’t work on that day because the restaurant was closed as that day was Thanksgiving day and we do not open on that day. As for the other “write ups” they were all back logged. One was for December 11th and another on December 12th for tardiness at the work place. I submitted paper work from my homeowner’s insurance company showing that on those days I was with their claims adjuster as I had a flood in my basement due to a water pipe busting, so there is no possible way that I worked those days, I took two weeks off to have the house fixed as my family was spending christmas in my home that year and the adjuster submitted a notarized sworn affidavit. As for the previous assault, the co-worker that was assaulted gave a sworn statement and affidavit to my lawyer to support what I claimed and another co-worker who witnessed the punch being thrown also gave a statement to support my claims. Both were written off to be “disgruntled former employee’s” although they quit to pursue better employment at other institutions. So I have lost faith in the justice system somewhat, but in the end, I didn’t win the court case, but they have new policies in place, so I guess I did kind of win.
December 21st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Did the police arrest the punch thrower for criminal threatening or attempting bodily harm? You should file a civil suit against the company and a seprate one against the punch thrower because of him you lost your job. Someone should pay your wages lost for them causing you to loose your job.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Mmmm…after reading Mr. Ferrer’s statement I am completely confused about this court’s ruling and now have some doubts about his lawyer’s competence and maybe the court’s as well. If in fact all this evidence existed and was presented in court then how could the defendant possibly prevail? Seems with all the evidence Mr. Ferrer had to disprove the company’s records of “past” events the court not only would have found the company negligent in providing a reasonably safe workplace but also found them guilty of falsifying records in order to help win their case. I have to assume that since the courts gave Mr. Ferrer an allowance to change & resubmit his claim there was enough supporting evidence to his claim in their opinion and as previously stated maybe Mr. Ferrer’s case was just presented in the wrong manner by his attorney? Maybe he should have considered claiming “Whistle Blower” termination and gotten OSHA involved? But on the other hand I’m not an attorney.
December 21st, 2009 at 7:00 pm
The police did go to the restaurant after I filed the report, but the General Manager went to the kitchen and informed the employee that an officer was here and to leave out the back door. He was subsequently arrested but I do not know what happened in the case as I have moved from the state of Connecticut and have minimal contact with people there.
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:07 am
Cesar, yous should try something that Dan or I mentioned to get what due to you.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:15 am
I have reached out to an attorney and we are currently looking into refiling this case under a different claim. Thank you so much om your advice Bill and Dan and everyone else. I will keep everyone updated on the status of the case.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Good for you, Cesar. I’ve been following this running commentary for quite some time, and after reading your input, I think something sounds a little fishy! WHY would the manager tell the fry cook the cops were there (a relative/friend perhaps)? WHY would the company go to all this trouble (fabricating and doctoring evidence) to protect said fry cook? WHO is this fry cook and WHY does he warrant all this protection? WHY did all this not come to light in the first court go-around? More questions than answeres. I must agree with Dan & Tom. I’m not a lawyer, but even I can see big holes in the presentation of this information. There still may be some justice left in the system. Good luck to you and I wish you the best in your case.
(“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice”…Martin Luther King, Jr. )
January 7th, 2010 at 3:56 am
I had to recently deal with a situation like this. I had a employee that worked for me for several years. When we hired him he was a mild mannered guy, even a little shy. While working for us he decided to take some martial arts classes. After he learned some pretty decent skills he started to become violent toward the plant manager. The plant manager was afraid to talk to him so I took him aside and calming explained that he could not square off with the manager every time he was assigned a duty by him. Since I had a really good connection with this employee and he was very meek in all other situations I gave him a warning of suspension next time and put him back to work with a note to his file.
About two weeks later the plant manager came to me and said this employee had once again threatened to do some martial arts on him so I quickly went to that employee and suspended him for the rest of that day and the following day and directed him to come back to work on Monday with a different frame of mind.
By this time this employee was already worked up. After returning to work he immediately started to intimidate the plant manager again. We promptly fired him. As the safety director I can not allow an unstable employee to continually threaten other employees. It not only distracts the other employees but also breaks a certain trust in your co-workers especially in the mining environment. Almost like war you have to be confident that the guy working over your shoulder isn’t going to a) knock you in the back of the head with a shovel and b) do something stupid that would put your life in danger. Since we are working around heavy equipment, conveyor belts and other dangers you have to be alert, sober, trained properly and trust your fellow worker has your back.
February 10th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
I work in Civil Service and reported to my supervisor many times how I among others were being bullied, intimidated and weren’t able to do our jobs. I started at the Pentagon only for a group of girls to make fun of my accomplishments and awards by saying who does she think she is and other comments. I was not given a chance to introduce myself and the pack mentality continued especially since I was given more attention from the men in our division and continued to have a positive attitude despite what the women were doing to me and others. They got away with their behavior because management believed they were just mean girls and it was nothing more than a female spat. I never joined in the gossip but heard it day by day and was told that I should find another job by another employee because they will destroy me because they were jealous of me as they tried to destroy her. I shrugged it off but continued to tell management of the bullying and intimidations and threats made by the pack. I had enough of the bickering and hurting and finally told one employee’s that I was not goin to take it anymore, she then yelled at me asked me who I thought she was messing with and then continued to throw her finger waving it in my face. I turned to walk away and said when you calm down and take your finger away from my face we can talk, and I tried to get away from her but she blocked me with her body. I finally got away and that is when she kicked the back of my leg. Management laughed it off and said oh she said her shoe slipped and if the red mark on the back of my leg hurt that bad why don’t I just go back to the hospital? I had someone take a pic of my leg for evidence since management did not want to do anything about the incident. I gave management a day to do something but they ignored it and then I filed with security forces. They had to reassign me for a little while because of my complaint. Others came forward but were not willing to put it on paper for fear of what I was going thru and they did not want the same. They are moving me back to where the kicking incident happened and not only that but making me do more for less money as punishment. They have completely dismissed this whole situation. Management should be held accountable that is what they get paid for. I will now have to look over my shoulder everyday for fear of what this lady will do next when I come back to the organization. Military management fails us even at the Pentagon. But I am a fighter and will continue to fight for what is right and one of them is a work environment free from harrassment and bullying and threats of violence.
October 7th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I believe that the zero tolerance practice is the way to go with these situaitons. If one employee takes a swing ( and a miss) at another employee you can be sure that this event has been brewing for some time, and it will never be resolved, certainly not by any HR professional.
Before any employee is brought on he should be aware of the comany’s policy regarding violence in the work place, and that violence includes any action that could be deemed so in a court of law ( a swing and miss is still assault ).
The employee should be told in no uncertain terms that such acts will be dealt with in the harshest manner - immediate dismissal. Anything less just leaves a simmering bomb ready to explode in the workplace and the way the courts are today the shrapnel would hit the bosses and not the workers.
October 30th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
My son was working for a company a few weeks ago. He had an employee saying horrible things to him and getting in his face. Then a week ago this man grabbed my sons arm and put a knife up to him saying some horrible things. My son came home and was very upset with what happened. When he called his Boss to tell him what happened My son was fired. This employer is Muslem as well as most of the employees. The young man that threatned my son is also Muslem. My son figured he would be fired if he told on the other employee. I thought for sure no way. But you know what he was fired on the spot. My son had never gotten at trouble at work. He did his Job why alot of the younger men talked and goofed off. What can we do?
November 1st, 2010 at 9:31 am
Christine, get in contact with your nearest OSHA office and state labor board. There is a “Whistle Blower Law”. It illegal to fire a person who is reporting something unlawful. Try having that person arrested for crimminal threatening or assult with a deadly weapon. Maybe sue the company in a civil matter. Do something or this will keep happening. That person most likely is in the U.S. illegally.
November 1st, 2010 at 9:43 am
Dear Christine,
How frightening to it must be for any mother to hear of her child being threatened at knife point while at work. Not being an attorney, I don’t know if your son would have a case based on religious discrimination or not, but a call to the EEOC might be able to answer that. (http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/religion.cfm)
Most states are “right to work” states, where anyone can be fired without cause, unless that cause is discrimination. Federal law (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) and the laws of most states prohibit employers from engaging in religious discrimination — that is, discriminating (or in this case termination) based on an employee’s religion, if in fact, that is the case. As you stated specifically that the employer was Muslim, and most of his employees were Muslim, it must be assumed that your son is not a Muslim. If your son was physically attacked and threatened (as in, with a knife), perhaps a call to local law enforcement would also be in order. Good luck.
November 1st, 2010 at 11:41 am
There are too many he said/she said’s here. Why aren’t we hearing from the person that experienced the event?
What I would tell my friends and relatives (or encourage them to presume) regarding my sudden loss of employment is not necesarily the same account I personally experienced.
November 1st, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Slip, I’m believing what he states. There are honest people still in this world.