Legal Question in Employment Law in District of Columbia

I was terminated from my employer for theft. I work in a restaurant that allows their servers to use an email/coupon button to take off amounts of 10 and 25 dollars off the tickets..The interesting thing is that the managers don't require us as servers to hold onto cash tickets or the coupons. Well, they said I was using this button dishonestly. I have all of the hard copies of itemized receipts they used to try to compile evidence against me. While viewing these documents, I noticed only one out of seventeen did I actually mispunch and use the computer carelessly. I have never been warned about this kind of thing, and in the termination meeting they scared me int signing a document saying I was terminated and I would pay them back and never work in a restaurant in the DC metropolitan area again!!! I need to know what my legal rights are. I feel like slander, defamation of character, plus lost wages are a major issue here. Let me know.


Asked on 2/01/10, 5:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

The agreement which you ill-advisedly signed should not be enforceable with respect to banning you from employment in all restaurants in the metro area and the provision regarding your promise to pay restitution for the funds which you allegedly stole is also likely suspect as to its enforceablilty due to the apparent coercive environment in which it was signed.

Next time you're faced with a situation in which you're being pressured or coerced into signing a document, tell the coercers, no, that you must first discuss it with a lawyer before you sign anything.

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Answered on 2/06/10, 7:16 pm


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