Unfair Labor Practices In this New Economy or a new version on how to screw the little guy!

I have this friend who works for this large home improvement chain lets call them “home depository” corporation who recently went on record saying they were closing some high end stores and laying off some corporate people but STATED THEY WERE NOT LETTING GO ANY EMPLOYEES WHO WORKED AT THE ACTUAL STORES! Yeah since mid October this company has “fired” employees who have been employed for the company for years for things like;
Not giving 24 hour notice prior to calling out
Being late for work (10 or 15 minutes here or there, less than 1 time a week)
Single customer complaints

The only people they are “firing” are those who have worked for the company for sometime and get stock options (you have to work for them for a year) and longer paid vacations.

My friend recently was told if he continued to come in late he was going to be let go. He is occasionally late like 2 X a month and never more than 10 to 15 minutes. The thing is this corporation also recently got some bad press for being the 17th in customer service in the country for big chains, but this guy my friend has had EXCELENT customer service winning 4 homer badges in the last 12 months (apparently there are people who have worked for this company for years and not gotten one!) The badges were for stopping a shop lifter and the rest for exemplary customer service! No one really said anything like this to him until he reached his year mark when they start matching stock options. This friends girlfriend has him putting the max into the stock options and feels like this maybe the REAL reason for what everyone believes is his inevitable severance from the company.

In our state “repeated job related offences” are enough to deny unemployment insurance! Apparently one of the women who was fired called in 2 X due to a knee injury with doctors documentation and although she had ample paid sick time left she failed to give 24 hours notice prior to calling out sick. The story goes she called out the morning of her 12 to 9 pm shift. Because it occurred 2X that was enough to be considered “repeated job related offences” which here means she is ineligible for unemployment insurance until she works for 20 weeks somewhere else!

Complicating matters is that the company recently switched to a new health insurance which required all applicants to reveal all kinds of personal heath information. This also fits since most of the people being fired are older or with other heath related risk factors (my friend is a long time smoker for example).

This is really, really bothering me the more I think about it! I know this guy and he is a good hard working person, whose only fault is that he is sometimes a little late! One would think other things would make up for that but I guess not admitting the truth to the public is WORSE than making these people suffer with the inability of getting financial help AND with the current job market and now a termination on their record the ABOSMINAL prospects of finding future employment. This is particularly hard since many of the people who they are letting go are older and have been with the company for many years so they will have LARGE holes in their resumes. ALL CAUSE THIS COMPANY WANTS TO SAVE A FEW BUCKS!

SUGGESTIONS/COMMENTS WOULD BE WELCOME!

reply to post by kupoliveson


I feel compelled to add to your statements. 2000, saw the coming and going of a major player in your Home Improvement warehouse.
The company was on the verge of a 2 for 1 stock split right before this happened. One of the 2 CEO's liquidated 2/3 of his shares in the company, and retired. The other of the 2 liquidated 1/3.
This happened overnight.
Employees woke up to find that their 401k's and stock options had dissipated.
A little warning would have been nice.
Something along the lines of Martha Stewart. But she was never even a thought in peoples minds at this time.
Along comes a new CEO who formerly ran "lets say, General Eclectic" into the ground, as we are seeing today in 2009. This has been known since the early 2000's by the way.
The long held promise of the Home Improvement warehouse was that it would never "RIF" Reduction in force.
Along with a slew of policy changes employees began noticing time cuts. 15 minutes here and there as you described, but employees with exemplary attendance records. Their punches were being altered to shave off time and make them come up short. Despite, records kept by the individuals, this also served as grounds for dismissal. Late punches.
Along comes Christmas. Everyone goes home for Christmas eve. When the come in on December 26th to begin work, a marvelous thing awaits. New fangled automatic cash registers. Along with all of the management staff and a battalion of police officers. The management makes the announcement that
33 of the 40 cashiers have effectively been terminated under grounds that they refuse to acknowledge. Wonderful way to start the new year.

This among other things such as false accusations of theft, as well as miss appropriation of petty cash, leads to another slew of terminations.
The warehouse comes up 31 cases short of a Dewalt drill. The dept head is pinned to the wall, arrested and fired. As is later discovered by loss prevention, it was the manager of the store that had stolen the drills, by means of an Official donation to habitat for humanity, which the charity never received. This was confirmed by watching security footage of the manager using one of the stores rental trucks to load up after hours, at the back garden gate. It seems he never shut off the camera.
The dept head was never offered his job back and was bailed out by his family who was never reimbursed. The store manager was arrested, but released 2hrs later as became evident when he came into the store to clean out his personal belongings under police escort.

3 drivers for the company, arrived at work one day to find that they no longer had jobs. Miss appropriation of petty cash used for mileage and traveling expenses was blamed. It was stated, that the drivers had filed false claims to obtain extra monies, to the tune of some $25 each.
The following morning, NEMF began delivering for the company on a so called trial basis, which allegedly had been set up overnight, but spread to 20 stores within one week as drivers were either terminated under false pretenses or forced into a position inside the store at a pay reduction.

The list goes on and on.




[edit on 8/3/2009 by reticledc]

this is horrible! Lay offs are bad but this is so much worse! I have been looking and there does not seem to be any laws preventing this behavior! In the least it is flagrant lying to the share holders, employees and the public but that seems to be alright!