Needing Help

[simsrebecca]

My Husband worked for a company for over a year and was fired what his supervisor stated was that he (my husband) was moved up into a lead position and was given two weeks to "step" up as a leader .My husband did perform all these tasks an employee under him was/ is big headed and got into an argument with my husband when my husband was assigning the man a work order. .My husband was/is always at work , hardly calls in , went to work sick , worked long hours and traveled when the job needed him to . He even got hurt on the job and was told by his supervisor not to file workmans comp or he would get fired . My husband is not a confrontational man. What I am wanting to know is that even though it has almost been a year since this he (my husband) tried to get unemployment after he was terminated but he did not get it for not "stepping up as a leader" was the reason they gave my husband .My husband found out just recently that the State of Oklahoma called and talked to his mom stating that the reason why he did not receive the unemployment benefits was due to the owner of the company stating that my husband did not "properly" set up work equipment ( my husband had found another job after searching for over 2 months in which we struggled with just my income ) but his mom did not tell him then because she figured he had already gotten a new job it shouldn't matter . Would that be false documentation on the owner's part for typing up a termination and stating a different reason to why my husband was fired and then telling the State of Oklahoma a different reason just so my husband could not get the help while trying to search for a different job? I believe my husband was wrongfully terminated do to discrimination among his employees and boss. My husband had to do side work for his boss as in cut his boss lawn ( on work time) paint his boss fence , clean out the bosses pond ( I have witnessed this because we live over by his boss and I drove by an seen my husband and another employee painting the bosses fence , even my brother witnessed this on a separate occasion) all of this on work time . I am needing some help to figure out what to do.

 

[cbg]

There is nothing for you to do. The only one who has any legal standing to do anything is your husband, and there really isn't much for him to do at this point either. Nothing you have described meets the legal definition of a wrongful termination. There is nothing illegal about giving different reasons to the employee and to the unemployment office as to the reason for termination, and there is nothing illegal about a boss requiring an employee to do work on his personal property. If that's how the boss wants him to spend the time he is being paid for, that's the boss's decision.

The one thing I see that the employer did illegally was threaten to fire your husband if he filed a workers comp claim. However, even that may not be actionable this long after the fact.

In any case, YOU do not do anything at all. For one spouse to involve him or herself in the other spouse's employment, frequently ends badly - as in the spouse getting fired. And it's legal to fire an employee for that reason. Be as supportive as you want, research options all you want, but you back off when it comes to action and let your husband deal with it.

 

[Betty3]

Based on what was posted, I don't see a wrongful termination.

wrongful termination -
http://definitions.uslegal.com/w/wrongful-termination/

 

[ElleMD]

Just a point of order. You mention the state called his mother and told her why he didn't get benefits? That isn't how it works. Benefit approvals and denials are not done by phone, nor would they be shared with random family members. A year later there would be no reason to inform anybody. How would they even know she was his mother? I'm thinking Mom might be a bit confused or you are getting the story wrong as it is at best 3rd hand.

While it was totally legal to terminate him for not being good at managing or whatever duties they wanted him to perform (and it is only their assessment of those abilities which count), that alone should not disqualify him from getting benefits. You may not be getting the whole story here (would not be the first or even 100th time an employee didn't share the whole story with a spouse or family member). He could have appealed if denied but that window to do so has long since passed. If all this happened a year ago, then even if there was illegal discrimination, the window to act on that has passed as well.