The day the movie "Bad Bosses" came out I was fired. That was fine by me, seeing that keeping clean a place dedicated to memories past amongst corpses was certainly not my career of choice. I was keeper of the mausoleum, the janitor that made sure bereft spouses and families had a clean space in which to cry their rivers of sorrow. That is what it had come to; a university magna cum laude graduate stuck in a dead end job, pun intended. No matter. It was a quiet job where I listened to books on tape while I pushed the vacuum cleaner down the long, melancholic corridors filled with lives past.
The job offered a modicum of satisfaction; I got some exercise while listening to books. But then, my manic boss started to interfere with my routine. Paranoia driven, he began to spy on me. One particularly dark and creepy night at the cemetery, I was happily busy cleaning my space when I noticed a car tucked deep into the bushes. Visiting hours had long passed and nobody but me and the residents' souls were supposed to be there. I tried to convince myself it was just my boss making sure I was doing my duties but then, fear set in. What if it was not my boss? What if it was some mad rapist or a freak with a fascination with death? Beside myself, I called 9-1-1. At the sound of sirens the car careened towards the exit, headlights off, but I clearly made out my boss' rugged profile.
Last winter, while getting out of my car to clock in at work, I slipped on black ice and fell squarely on my head. Yeah, I thought I had graduated from the school of hard knocks but there it was, one more lesson to learn. I received a minor concussion for my efforts and could not work for two days. Mr. psycho refused to pay me for days where clearly, an injury happened at the work place.
Being new to this country, I was not familiar with labour laws and I set to educate myself. I found I was entitled to at least one day's pay since I was only a part-time employee. I worked from 7 a.m. to noon and although that is 5 hours, my boss had told me that the law stipulated that if a person worked over 3.5 hours the employee had to take a half hour unpaid lunch break. I was forced to stay on the premises for five hours but I was only paid for four and a half. During my research into the various sections of the Employment Standards Act (a yawn) I found out that the half hour break had to be taken only if one worked over five hours. I started leaving at 11.30 a.m. and sent him a bill for over $800 for all the half hours I was forced to stay in a janitors' closet with no ventilation and prone to Ford fly infestations. Never heard of them? That's because they only feed on corpses. Unless there is one in your attic or basement, you most likely would not have encountered these tiny pests. I was not allowed to sit in my car, when the weather permitted, because, I found out later, the company got paid for five hours of my services but he pocketed half an hour a day.
As punishment, he forced me to move to a new location with different hours. He knew I could not do the new hours since I teach twice a week in the early afternoon. There was no discussion. One Friday as I punched out, I was handed a little piece of paper with an address and told to report at 6 a.m. on Monday. Like cattle I was pushed out of sight but I would not go meekly. On Sunday, I wrote him a scathing email, recounted every transgression I encountered and copied it to his client, the CEO of the mausoleum who had become a good acquaintance of mine.
Monday bright and early I presented myself at the new location and told him I could only work until noon, as I did in the previous place. He informed me that he no longer had hours for me at that location. I wondered how the hours had been there on Friday but suddenly vanished by Monday. On Tuesday I received a Fed-Ex package with my pink slip, although there was nothing of that particular colour in the package.
Immediately, I filed a wrongful dismissal claim and one for unemployment benefits. Both were denied. Mr. Psycho Snake in the Grass, knows the laws well and uses them to his advantage, knowing that most of his employees will not take the extraordinary steps it takes to challenge the government's decision. He claimed that I misconducted by copying the email to a third party and thereby disclosed sensitive information. We are talking vacuum cleaners here..... He claimed I refused to work although I had signed an Employee Agreement in which I agreed to be moved to different locations with staggering hours, as the company saw fit. The law clearly states that if an employee refuses reasonable work, unemployment benefits are not due to them. It also says that if an employee acts recklessly, intentionally misconducts and/or commits an act of such magnitude as to directly cause negative effects in the conduct of business, that employee is also not entitled to benefits. On this, I was denied both my wrongful dismissal and unemployment benefits claim.
I heard from the wrongful dismissal people first. They said I refused to work the full day and therefore, an employer has the right to fire me without two weeks notice. Further, since I had signed the Employee Agreement which stated I could be moved from location to location I was in violation of that too. I was crushed. I pointed out that I signed that agreement when I was hired with no legal council and I was told just to skip through it and sign, it was just the standard employee agreement. In contrite wordy legalese, it warned about sharing company methods, supplies or information on clients. That type of thing. To no avail. According to the Labour Department, I had not been wrongfully dismissed. Secondly, unemployment benefits were denied and I turned my furry into action. I challenged the government's decision on my unemployment benefit. I pay into the system and I was not letting my bad boss get away with his antics when it comes to me. He has fired others who start their claim but never seem to go through with it. I have the right to be heard by a Board of Referees who consist of three lay people familiar with the Employment Standards Act and they decide whether to grant my appeal or not. At the hearing, both the employer and the claimant are present.
I had 5 weeks to prepare my rebuttal. I studied past cases and used them in my defense. I spent hours buried in mountains of legalese until my head was spinning like a top on crack. It was not looking good for me however. Bad boss cum scum lawyer knew exactly what terminology to use in his defense.
In the interim, I entertained myself with minor acts of revenge. :-) On the company's website, I noticed they claimed to be members of all kinds of janitorial organizations I was not familiar with and with the Better Business Bureau. I checked the BBBs website and lo and behold, the company was not listed. I contacted the bureau who started an investigation and forced them to remove the torch from their website. I relished in minor victories.
With my feet in deep water, I went in front of the board of referees with a ream of papers, marked up in red and black ink and a zillion sticky papers filled with notes. The hearing was at 9 a.m. By 9.20 a.m. there was no sign of the coward scum bag boss and the hearing started without him. I had the referees enthralled with my stories of working late in dark cemeteries and bugs that feed on corpses. I told them about an employee who got fired for not filling his daily log sheet. The reason he didn't was because he couldn't. He was illiterate. The boss didn't care. Off with his head. I told them about the BBB and spent an hour recounting how other employees had been mistreated. At the end, one of the jurors told me she'd been a referee for 15 years and had never seen anyone as prepared for the hearing as I was. She told me I should be working in an office and I asked if she had a job for me. Everybody laughed and I knew......victory is in the air! I am not counting my blessings yet, not until I get the letter but.......I eagerly await it. If the referees accept my appeal, I will appeal the wrongful dismissal as well. There is no stopping a raging bull.....
