Legal Question in Employment Law in Arizona
Short and simple version of the history of this case:
New employee to my department was discriminated against based on religion and race. She had several conversation/emails from the manager of the department who stated she would be more promotable if she was Christian.
New employee files complaints up the chain of command and was told that the upper level management would handle the harassment/discrimination. The harassment continues, so the new employee visits with Human Resources. After visiting with HR, the new employee is berated by the department manager and the new employee is retaliated against in the form of intimidation and her job duties are reassigned to be less than she was hired for.
New employee starts recording meetings/conversations with the department manager after being continually harassed and having her words twisted. When the department manager finds out she cries to the department VP, and the next day the new employee�s job duties become even less and she is no longer allowed to attend critical meetings or conference calls.
Over the next month, the harassment slowed down and the department manager was coached to constantly praise the new employee by email and in person. The new employee was constantly told what a great asset she was and was thanked for working so hard.
Then suddenly the new employee was fired for supposedly not being able to work with the manager (this manager has had several complaints about her in the past, and recently admitted that she didn�t like or know how to manage people). The VP who fired her also told her that she knew what she did.
Right after new employee was fired, I was called into a meeting with the VP who informed me of the firing and told me that he knew that I knew what had been going down (I witnessed a lot of the discrimination) and that I needed to just work with the manager and move on. I was essentially threatened into keeping my mouth shut about what happened if I wanted to keep my job.
After being threatened, I emailed all emails related to the discrimination case to myself and the new employee (her family is taking the case) as evidence of the discrimination and harassment. These emails were not used for any sort of proprietary gain and I never signed any sort of confidentiality agreement.
I was fired the next day for supposedly breaking the company�s policy.
Is there potentially a wrongful termination suit in there for me too? I was intimidated and my job was threatened by the VP, and I only took action to protect myself. In my two plus years of working there, I did not have one complaint against me, was respected by everyone, and was referred to as the �rock� of the department. I feel like my firing was direct retaliation for trying to protect myself and a discriminated employee.
Thanks for your help!
1 Answer from Attorneys
Regarding your employment law question: First, this firm represents only business owners, so it would not be a case that we would take. Secondly, with the bad economy, the number of lawyers who would take such a case against businesses and business owners (which used to be on contingency) has declined. Still both you and the other fired employee can file a complaint with the EEOC, and it looks like you are a good witness about the discrimination against the new employee. And, while I doubt it, you might have a claim for being fired as a "whistleblower," (preparing to go public with unlawful action but fired before you got there) or for a reason that violates AZ public policy. But, it looks like your claim - and defense of your action - is weaker because (1) you have no privacy right on your company emails. The company owns them and you should know that larger companies routinely read and monitor them; so, be careful about what you say. Also (2) you acted voluntarily without being asked. So while morally you may have done the right thing, at law you used company property and gave it to the opposition. This, arguably, violated your duty of loyalty to the company and you could be termed what the law calls an "officious intermeddler," - in other words getting involved where you do not yet belong. Still, I would go to the EEOC and see what they think. Their work is free and they may be able to refer to plaintiff's counsel who still work on a contingency basis.
As you can see, commercial and employment law can be a minefield where doing the right thing is not necessarily the right thing. If you have a business law matter we can be of more help. We might also be able to defend you if they sue you for breach of fiduciary duty (loyalty), etc. but that would be on a hourly basis, just as with our business clients.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.
Law Offices of Donald W. Hudspeth, P.C.
3030 North Central Avenue, Suite 604
Phoenix, Arizona 85012
Direct [email protected]
Firm [email protected]
Ph 602.265.7997
Fax 602.265.6099
Web site www.azbuslaw.com
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