... early because they were short staffed, my original hours were from 12:30pm-6:00pm i arrived at 11:50am and their was a supervisor on my post when i arrived she asked did my account manger which is my employer mention anything to me about staying late, the building hours are 11:30am to 7:00 pm i told her no, she came back and asked me would i be able to stay until 7 i told her i was sorry but i could not stay longer because i had to get home and i had something already scheduled around that time she said okay and left, she came back to my post around a couple hours later and told me that my account manager is making me stay because they are short staffed, i told her that i had to get home because i had something very important to do usually you are given the option to stay or if you want to leave but i was not she told me that i must stay and i had to take it up with my account manager when i texted him he told me someone was coming to my post and that if i left it would be abandoning post but i had already served my time which was 12-6pm, no one never arrived at 6 so at 6:20 i went home i came back to work the next day i was sent home and they told me i could not come back until we met i came back to meet and they gave me termination papers, i was with a union and the union who was getting money out of my check every month told me the employer and the company are not giving me my job back and the union as well said they would no longer fight my case, i filed for unemployment and then got approved, the office of unemployment granted me benefits because they said my former employer had no good reason of firing me because i served my time like i was suppose and i did nothing wrong a few weeks later i received a notice in the mail that he has filed an appeal for a court hearing to keep me from receiving my benefits and i have to go to court in 2 weeks does he has a chance of winning this case
Answers (2)
i think they were setting you up cause if they haven't required you to stay like that all of a sudden they should have asked if you couldn't they should have made other arrangements but they didn't i would file a appeal with unemployment division as well as find a attorney to appeal your termination
Going on your description of events, it does appear your employer was being unreasonable in expecting you to work on at such short notice.
The question is, does such a condition, to provide cover when requested, exist in your contract of employment with them? I do find it both dissappointing, strange why the Union did not support you. Did you clearly break a condition that made it futile to defend you? What reason did they give you? In the UK, membership is dependent upon subs being paid & not tied to a company.
Have you been subject to company discipline before, had trouble with that manager who told you to work on before. Did she make tbe mistake & the company chose her over you? All of which, if you are within your terms of employment could go.towards proving wrongful if not constructive dismisall.
You would be advised to ask the Union again why, produce evidence such as your contract ,written request, emails, texts & witnesses to back your claim, be assured the company is!
Get legal advice as suggested by Softbabe, it goes without saying that you must be utterly honest with him/her if the best course of action is to be given to you.
Good luck
I do not know if such rules apply where you are, but in the UK it is illegal to work longer than 6 hrs continually without a break of at least 1/2 hr. Sensible as it actually improves productivity & reduces errors. Check if you have such rules & that the manager was forcing you to break them.
Another line of defense for you. In the UK health & Saftey rules are in place fot those working alone, even in a office environment. So if you trip over or suffer a medical emergency you will not be found until the morning!
If you can say you waited for the promised cover to arrive as long as possible, (evidence of managers request would be more than useful), that as you were working alone & as no provision had been made, you felt obliged to leave (you did'nt want to disobey company rules or put in a position of puttig the companies reputationat risk by having to sue for compensation if anything did happen!)