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Can you claim a hostile work environment when the owner of a family ran business gets drunk at the work place?
I work at a restaurant as a second job and was taken off the schedule after two things happened. One, I told the drunk owner to not speak to me because of how disrespectful she was being and to talk to the manager if she had to tell me something. Two, I give them my availability and they ignored it giving me hours I was unavailable to work. I have not made any formal complaints as it is a family ran business with the owners being husband and wife with their son as general manager. They haven t officially fired me, just took me off the schedule, in my opinion to avoid wrongful termination but I don t feel comfortable talking with any of them as they are only looking out for themselves.
9 Answers
- curtisports2Lv 73 years agoFavorite Answer
There is no such thing as wrongful termination in a family-owned business, except that you can't be fired for discriminatory reasons if you are a member of a federally-protected group. Age, race, religion etc.
You are an at-will employee, meaning they can let you go for no reason. Doesn't make this situation right, but there is nothing that will protect your job.
- babyboomer1001Lv 73 years ago
You have no right to talk to your employer in that fashion. Who the H*ll do you think you are? It is called insubordination and is cause for immediate termination. Don't expect to be put back on the schedule. If you don't like the employer's behavior or how he acts or talks to you, find a job elsewhere. You don't get to tell him how to run "his" business.
Source(s): Certified Paralegal, with 25+ years' experience & with Employment law experience. - Anonymous3 years ago
No.
You don't get to dictate to your fvcking BOSS how they talk to you.
YOU are obligated to work around THEIR schedule. They are not required to work around yours.
You need to look up wrongful termination and understand what it is. What you're whining about isn't it.
Also learn: bosses give exactly zero fvcks about what YOU want or need.
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- SlickterpLv 73 years ago
They can avoid wrongful termination by firing you. They don't need a reason to. Sounds like you deserved to get cut. You tell a business owner not to talk to you, you cannot really think they'd keep you employed there, right?
- Anonymous3 years ago
No. Hostile work environments are not against the law. Only certain types of hostile work environments are. EEOA only protects you against work environments that are hostile due to your race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. Employees are also protected from hostile work environments that are reprisals for complaints filed against the employer under a variety of laws, including but not limited to EEOA, FLSA, and WPPA.
What you can do, though, is go down to the unemployment office and file a claim for "underemployment benefits." Unemployment insurance doesn't just cover losing your job but also covers a cut in hours resulting in a loss of pay. So if your employer has started to schedule you less than they have (e.g., give you zero hours without firing you), you can make a claim for "underemployment benefits." The benefits will make up for your lost wages and will, in all likelihood, cause the employer to increase your hours back to what they once were in order to avoid further claims and an increase in their unemployment insurance premiums.
If your employer starts creating a hostile work environment in reprisal to your claim for underemployment benefits, now that is something you can go against your employer for because that is expressly illegal. Also, if your employer fires you for that reason, regardless of what reason, if any, may have been given, that is also expressly illegal, even if your employment is "at-will" employment. Employment being "at-will" does not protect the employer from legal liability, civil or criminal, for dismissals for reasons that are illegal.
- Anonymous3 years ago
You have no legitimate complaint about the second thing. They can set the schedule however they want.
The first thing could be a legitimate claim but your description of the behavior is too vague.
"how disrespectful she was being"
doesn't tell us anything, so with that at the only description of the behavior I would have to say that you have no valid legal complaint.
It doesn't matter if they fire you or cut your hours to zero, if a person harasses you at work and that harassment is illegal, then retaliation if you complain is also illegal.
But the harassment behavior must be illegal and you didn't describe any harassment behavior in your question. "being disrespectful" does not cross a legal line.
- Rick BLv 73 years ago
You can claim anything you want. Telling the owner of a company not to talk to you seems pretty stupid if you want to continue working there. They are not required to put you on the schedule.
In most states, they are free to fire you with or without cause.
If I were you, I would find a new job.