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Is what my boss doing legal? What can I do about this?
I got hired at a restaurant through an agency that helps people with disabilities. I have a job coach. My boss has been giving me really low hours because the assistant manager is complaining and wants me gone. I’m supposed to get 25 hours a week, but they give me 4 hours. They’ve made accommodations and the assistant manager doesn’t like it and has been complaining to my coworkers and the manager. They’ve sent me home early several times and made up lame excuses to tell me not to come in. My coworkers were being rude because I’ve overheard them talking about my accommodations. Now the manager has been ignoring my calls/texts and didn’t send me a work schedule.
I believe that the assistant manager has been trying to get me fired and has talked about complaining. She is the reason the manager isn’t answering me. I also haven’t gotten paid and the restaurant just opened a month ago. I don’t know who I’m supposed to go and report this to because it isn’t a big restaurant. It only has a few locations. My job coach isn’t helpful.
Does this mean I’m fired if they don’t answer my calls? Is this legal? Don’t they have to pay me?
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If your job coach isn't getting involved, then talk to your social worker. This would be the person you see once a year for a meeting to see if your circumstances have changed. If you do not have her/his name and contact number, then call your local DSHS to explain that you need your social worker to contact you and get the number and name to also leave them a message. If you think you don't have anyone to contact, go in to DSHS in person, this is better than calling as you can end up for an hour or more waiting. If going in person, tell the person who calls your name, what your issue is, who your job coach is and that they haven't worked on your job schedule issues on your behalf and ask if they can give you someone to help you. Let them know as you told us of what has been going on. They are doing this in hopes you will just quit. Don't. I had the same happen to me where I was on the books as an employee but they were no longer giving me any shifts at all, I had no hours for an entire month. I am not disabled, but this is a way a company will treat an employee they don't want because they have to have a good reason to fire you and a personality conflict and not liking you is not a good enough reason. In your case, I do not know if they filled out any paperwork agreeing to give you the 25 hours a week. An occasional slow time is reasonable and getting only 20 or 18 hours a week. Some companies have work load vary quickly with out warning and the PT people are told to go home first. HOwever if that's the case, they should be rotating taking turns with all the Part time employees having to go home early on occasion. I was the only one being sent home early, no one else, so it is obvious they are picking on you and treating you unfairly. In my case, it wasn't a job I was thrilled to fight for. So I quit but if you are disabled, you may have a case against them for discrimination. The very fact that they have not fired you means you are a good worker and they have nothing they can legally claim as a reason to fire you. So you need to talk to DSHS and find out if someone there can handle this for you, getting someone from your state labor board involved or whether at any point a lawyer is needed to go through the companys owner or corporate office.
This new business may be suffering and unable to pay all their bills and figured you'd probably not question anyway and keep working for free and for little hours but that is not right. If that is the case, you should still get paid for hours you worked but a job counselor may have to find you a better place if your current employer is in financial trouble and may not keep its door open. You may also need a new job so you do need to contact your social worker or DSHS if nothing is happening. Typically, social workers are overworked and have heavy case loads every day and it can be hard to fit in an extra person to help out on any particular day....thats how badly their work loads are. I've seen that being the case for years. But if nothing else, go in person and get a chance to tell your story and the problems and have someone put your issue into their system, emailing the details to whomever needs to handle it. Ask them how soon you can expect to hear from this person and if no one does, call and talk to them again. Please have paper and pen with you and write down the day you went in to complain and the name of the person you talked to and what they promised DSHS can do for you. Use this information to share with them if you have to go in again due to no responses from anyone. You may have to ask for a new job coach. It may be the one I was familiar with, was handling things beyond the scope of her job duties. Previous job counselors didn't help as much with the client I did care giving for. So you might have to keep complaining to DSHS or whomever they told to contact and help you. If people think they can still ignore you, have a family member or friend call in case you are getting the run around with DSHS. There were occasions I had to speak on my clients behalf because they were not getting all the information from my client, or they just didn't understand the full issue or my client wasn't understanding it.
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