Waitress Update on Douchey Manager

Hello RHU, Yuka here again.

I've been ranting here and there on the RHU Facebook page but I thought I'd make one big update here too. My first tenure as a waitress has come to an abrupt end because I reported my manager to the Ministry of Labour about his Employment Standards Act violations. So even though I'll be getting money at minimum wage with the taxes finally deducted, he fired me due to "complaints" against me and says that because I was on probation, he can fire me whenever if it was within 3 months. Mind you, this man is a fucking liar and I shall explain why.

A) There was no written contract. To be under probation, it has to be explicitly stated in a written contract and he never did that. He said, "We'll try you out for a few months and see how it goes before we officially hire you." He didn't even use the word "probation" in the verbal thing. As for a written contract, because he wanted me to work for under minimum wage under the table - both of which are illegal - the probationary clause would've been rendered null and void anyways because he's asking me to do something outside the law. 

B) He lied about complaints. He said because I had complaints against me, he was letting me go. My customers told me that I was a pretty good waitress for my first serving job. My coworkers told me I was doing a pretty good job. The OWNER was talking to me about increasing my hours for this week before this shit storm happened. Why would he talk about giving me more hours if I was going to be fired soon? It makes no sense. When a newer girl was having issues with a delivery, he was trying to make her hand the phone over to me because I was way better at the job than she was and he knew it. And hell, on top of that, at every other job I've had where there were issues with me, I was taken aside and they were addressed to my face. One of them, I got fired after two weeks but they still tried to correct my issues. 

C) He tried to blame everything on me. He said he asked me for my SIN card and gave me forms to fill out when I first got hired but he never ever ever did. I was talking to one of my coworkers who had been there a lot longer than me and she told me he never asked her for her SIN either. And say he did give me forms and I happened to forget to fill them out, why didn't he ask and ask and ask until I returned them? That's a pretty damn incompetent manager if you ask me. Mind you, he told this to my fiance when he called him. During this conversation, as soon as he heard the reason for why my fiance was calling, he started yelling. Incompetent AND immature, and he's a married father going up against a 19-year-old. Are you kidding me? 

Also, the bastard is gonna try to deduct money I happened to lose while I was still trying to get the closing thing down. He absolutely cannot do that unless I gave him written consent and I didn't do that. He wouldn't listen to me when I told him that. Hell, he wouldn't listen to me when I told him how things work with the ESA and was convinced whatever he said was right. He had that attitude again when I went in today to return the tax forms to him. Even had my fiance with me and when I said he was my arbitrator and he speaks on my behalf, he initially agreed and tried to force me to speak instead. Fuck no, you bowl me right over, I'm gonna have the kid with ADD talk to you instead. >.<

So yeah, while the issue with the money is almost settled, I would totally pay to see the look on his face when I file a second claim against him for wrongful termination. 

Until next time, RHU.

--Yuka

Comments

[Hellgreens Slave]

Do you work in an at-will state? cos most states are & if you're not a contracted worker they can fire you at any time for no reason at all & it's legal but you'd still get unemployment.

Also, he just sounds shady as hell lol

[BPFH]

She's Canadian, hence the reference to a SIN card and the Ministry of Labour.

My understanding is that US employment law (with the doctrine of "at-will" employment and such) is somewhat unusual in places with legal systems based on British common law.

[The Last Archimedean]

Nice to see you grew a pair and reported the bastard.

10-1 odds the restuarant will be put out of business when the Minstry of Lobor finishes their investigation and uncovers all the shady stuff. For sure the douche manager will be gone.

[LadyRed]

I’m glad you reported your manager, and I hope things work out for you . Hopefully reporting them will expose all of this manager’s incompetence and he will be fired and the restuarant will be shut down.

Furthermore , I hope you do go for wrongful termination as it does sound like you were wrongfully terminated and he’s trying to do something illegal by trying to take away your money.

[Searabbits]

I've obviously missed more to this story, because why do we want the restaurant shut down? All that happens is her coworkers lose their jobs too.

[shuichiboy]

@Hellgreens slave: In addition to what BPFH said, no province in Canada has an "at-will" law. What Yuka described are gross violations of the law and if he/she can convince the judge of these, the restaurant will most surely have to pay damages.

[espinaca.]

I hate to say this, but you're probably not cut out to work in a restaurant. Shady stuff is the norm, sadly enough.

[Not a crusty]

espinaca - and because shady things are the norm, we should accept it? I think not! If no one stands up to shady practices, we all lose. Who knows what other corners that manager cuts. It could be people's safety at risk!

[Hellgreens Slave]

Ah was quite unsure what a SIN card was but now that makes sense...... sadly I don't know Canadian law since I'm American.

But I disagree with espinaca - just because some people think shady stuff is "norm" doesn't mean it actually is "norm"... any legit job would want you on the books.. it's different if you were to be like a babysitter but at an established business that's NOT the norm & no one should tolerate it. Clearly this dude has his own agenda & good for the O.P. for getting out & I hope she can kick his butt in court or something so that other people don't have to deal with the same BS she had to go through.

[Larry Berry]

"I hate to say this, but you're probably not cut out to work in a restaurant. Shady stuff is the norm, sadly enough.
Posted by: espinaca."

I agree with Hellgreen's slave that it is not "the norm". Sure it does happen, but then you could say that no one here is cut out for retail because the whole point of the site is complaining about the things that happen regularly. Well if you're going to complain about hellspawn then you aren't cut out for retail, because it happens.

I worked in many restaurants and in none of them was it "the norm" for anything as shady and downright illegal as this.

[Skittles]

This is awesome, when one person has the gumption to stand up against unfair and illegal treatment of employees we all win, when no one does we all lose. At-will employment laws need to be abolished or at the very least reformed. They were intended to prevent people from treating servants like slaves and preventing them from leaving employment. That time is long past.

[YukaJuka]

Unfortunately I couldn't get the satisfaction of getting a good reaction outta him about the second claim, as petty as that sounds. But hey, I think I deserve to have a laugh about something. Even said to go right ahead with it, and I did, but the Ministry told me they were just gonna combine the two claims and gave me a new claim #.
In regards to my coworkers losing their jobs, if that happens, don't get me wrong but I'd feel terrible. It was something I thought about long and hard before filing the first claim as a possible repercussion. However, since they'd been there a lot longer than me, the unpaid wages for them would be a lot higher, especially for the drivers/kitchen, since they're supposed to be paid 10.25/hr instead of 8/hr and they'd definitely be due severance pay. I was sick and tired of being walked all over and I wasn't going to stand for it any more. When you piss me off, you REALLY piss me off and this man has everything coming to him. Espinaca, even if I wasn't cut out for the business, I was still good at my job. And tell me what an 18-year-old without a lot of life experience supposed to do to keep a roof over her head and food on her table with no experience in anything but the food industry? If I wasn't happy with how this restaurant was run but how it was run was legal, I would've still kept my mouth shut and worked to support myself. But it wasn't legal and I wasn't about to be screwed over in the end. The taxes he wouldn't pay are the taxes that give me free healthcare (no, not bragging but stating a fact) and pays my father's salary as he is a soldier and the government pays him using taxes from the populace. Even if what happened here is the "norm", that doesn't make my actions any less right.

Also, he's hired a new girl. Pretty little blonde thing she is, and with his rep as a perv, I think he just hired her over her looks, based on a first impression. Just sayin'.

[YukaJuka]

Also, and I can't believe I forgot to write this into the first comment, but thank you all for your support. At the end of the day, knowing that people who don't even know who I am support me, makes things a lot more worthwhile. :) <3

[SarBear]

Tae a shit in his gas tank. Or tell me what his car is and i'll gladly do it.

[Jami]

@espinaca - Yeah, well, child labor was the norm until someone stood up and did something about it. Yuka did the right thing. Doing the right thing doesn't mean one isn't cut out for a certain type of work.

[AmigaTech]

Those who report behavior like that are usually the first to take it on the chin - But if you don't report it, they get away with it.

It hurts to be the reporter.

But hopefully you've made the world better by preventing them from doing the same to anyone else.

--AT