First off, a little back ground.
On May 17th I started a new job as an Admin Assistant in a Body Shop. 2 weeks later, the manager of the body shop was let go.
On June 3rd, my grandfather had a major stroke. I took a couple of days off in June and took my previously scheduled holidays from July 1-10 and was back at work on the 12th. I worked that whole week and since my grandfather was doing very badly, took the following week off work. He passed away on July 24th and I was back at work full time on July 29th.
On August 6th, I was “let go”. The manager told me that it had nothing to do with me taking time off, and had everything to do with the bodyshop not making any money and they were needing to lighten the load. He specifically said that they needed to save some money, and that it wasn’t going to work with having a full time Admin for the body shop. He said he would be glad to give me a letter of reference, and by all means to use him as a reference. I thanked him, and left.
Fast forward to today…I go in to pick up my Record of Employment and final pay stub and find out that they had hired someone to replace me. On my ROE it says “dismissed” and not “Shortage of Work” for reason for issuing the ROE.
My question is…Can they do that? I know during the 3 month probation period I can be let go for anything, but can they issue me a permanant lay off and then hire someone for the same job?
I will be contacting the Ministry of Labour tomorrow, but if there is anyone around who can give me some insight, I’d appreciate it.