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Termination for Theft
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Termination for Theft
Discuss employment-law issues such as family leave, overtime, disabilities law, harassment, immigration and termination.
My brother worked for a college as a custodian. He was outside of the building and saw someone throw an item into the trash bin. His likes to fix things and either use them or give them away. He took
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Forums » Topic Forums » Legal Forum » Termination for Theft
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Termination for Theft
posted at 11/11/2009 5:13 PM EST
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Posts: 1
First: 11/11/2009 Last: 11/11/2009 |
My brother worked for a college as a custodian. He was outside of the building and saw someone throw an item into the trash bin. His likes to fix things and either use them or give them away. He took the item to his car. Later he was called in to the office and was terminated on the spot for "theft". He is 57 years old and has never had anything at all like this on his record. What he did was thoughtless, but he thought it was OK since it was thrown away. With his excellent working record I think being terminated was very drastic, epecially today. It seems that a reprimand and being put on notice for a first "offense" is more appropriate. His wife just had heart surgery,but they lost the insurance coverage. She cannot work and they are about to lose their home. What can he do? |
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Termination for Theft
posted at 11/12/2009 3:44 AM EST
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
Apply for unemployment. Depending on the state, he might have a chance at replacing at least some of his income for a little while. If he was never warned and if there was no policy against dumpster diving, he might have a chance. Most states like to see the employer give an employee a second chance before termination.
However, it is possible that you don't know the full story about warnings, etc. Otherwise unless he feels (and has anything to prove) that the termination was a pretense due to his age, gender, race, etc., he is pretty much out of luck. |
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Termination for Theft
posted at 11/12/2009 4:01 AM EST
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Posts: 155
First: 8/24/2009 Last: 2/9/2010 |
Labeling the unauthorized removal of something from the trash as theft is not all that uncommon. Whether it will prevent him from losing unemployment depends upon a number of factors not known to us. For example were their signs posted warning individuals not to remove items from the trash, was their a comment in the employee handbook or a policy in place, etc. Regardless, absent the protected class issues that rrupert raised I see little hope for redress. |
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