Legal Question in Employment Law in Ohio

Re: Hostile work enviroment

The general rule in Ohio is all employment is employment at-will. This means that either the employer or the employee can end the employment relationship at any time for any reason or no reason. If you are not a member of a union or have otherwise received a promise to work a specific number of hours for a specific length of time, i.e., 1 year, your employer is free to limit your hours or terminate your employment under this general rule.

Exceptions to the rule, however, exist. For example, the employer cannot discriminate against your for reasons that are not allowed under the law. The most common prohibited reasons are age, race, sex, disability, religion, and national origin. There are more, but these are the most common forms of illegal discrimination. Employers also are not allowed to retaliate against you for certain protected activities. Common protected activities include, attempts to unionize with other workers, filing worker's compensation claims, filing sexual harassment claims, or assisting a governmental agency with their investigations into the workplace.

From your question, I am unclear about whether you belong to a union. If you do, your collective bargaining agreement will probably specify what rights you have, and you should discuss them with your union steward. If the steward does not satisfy you, you are always free to consult with an attorney, but you will need to give the attorney a copy of the collective bargaining agreement to review.

You have mentioned that your hours are being given to a younger worker. At age 47, you are protected against acts of age discrimination. If the reason your hours are being cut or your employment is being terminated is because of your age, that is against the law.

Your question, however, does not offer enough facts to know whether the employer is acting because of your age. Your question also suggests facts indicating that a personality conflict exists between you and your Chief. But you have not given facts that indicate why the conflict exists. If the Chief does not like you simply because your personalities do not match, that is not against the law, and the Chief is probably free to disfavor or fire you because of it. But if the Chief does not like you because of your age, race, sex, or other protected status or because you engaged in some protected activity AND makes your work environment hostile because of it, that is probably against the law.