I have reason to believe my employer broke the law.

Factual Questions
1

Before being hired, I had to fill out an “availability” matrix. It had a format that clearly indicated which hours one might be available for. For instance, a 7am to 9pm request, would have occupied the center portion of the schedule request. An overnight request might show a late start time, and an end time during the morning hours.

I wrote (in pen) that I could work from 7am to 9pm. I indicated this by filling out the lines provided on the form in the order and manner that the form required.
Long story short, my original request was “not there”. I went to HR, and they said “We don’t usually give copies (of availability forms) out. I can fax it.”

Fine. Fax it.

Next day, the scheduling dept. has no toner in their fax machine. How convenient.

Next day, they just need to walk over to HR and get the info.

Next day, they get my “original” availability form. I get called into a meeting with the guy that did my initial interview. He says “I see here that you requested to work from 9pm to 7am.”

I said that that was the opposite of what I requested. He asked “Is this your signature on the request form?” It was a photocopy of my signature, on top of a document that misrepresented my availability statement.

Yep, they could have photocopied my sig onto a document that had me confessing to the Zodiac killings. They forged the document they were implying I signed. I signed the initial availability request, but the (incorrect) typing was added after I had signed the document.

I know what I need to do career-wise, but I’m not as experienced at Ohio revised code searches as the next guy.

2

Wait, so this company apparently forged your signature, and you were aware of this at the time it happened, and you still took the job offer and work there now?

This is a trick question or something, right?

:confused:

3

[QUOTE=IAmNotSpartacus]
Wait, so this company apparently forged your signature, and you were aware of this at the time it happened, and you still took the job offer and work there now?

This is a trick question or something, right?

:confused:
[/QUOTE]

That’s not at all how I read the OP. They forged the signature later, after he had already signed another version of the document.

He signed a document, then took the job, then later was shown another version of the document with his forged signature on it.

What I don’t get is what the company stands to gain from this. It’s an availability form. What do they gain from pretending, to you, that you said something other than what you did say about your own availability? Either you’re available or not. Them changing the form doesn’t magically make you available during those hours. So I don’t understand why they would do something like this.

-FrL-

4

[QUOTE=Frylock]
That’s not at all how I read the OP. They forged the signature later, after he had already signed another version of the document.

He signed a document, then took the job, then later was shown another version of the document with his forged signature on it.
[/quote]

OIC. Good point, I see that now. That’s a big no-no and now I do see some potential harms here.

Perhaps as a prelude shitcanning him?

“We’re transferring you to graveyard. Oh, what’s that you say, you don’t like that? Well, you’re availability form you signed before we hired you says you specifically asked for graveyard. GTFO.”

Maybe to avoid having unemployment deducted from their account or something by trying to argue the termination was for cause?

Is there a generous severance policy on the table?

Anyways, thanks for setting me straight, I was confuzzled.

5

Isn’t it far more likely that the OP made a mistake and filled in the wrong section? Why on earth would a company stoop to forgery over such a trivial matter?

6

According to what I can find online, the telephone number for the Ohio Department of Labor’s Wage & Hour division is 614-644-2239. Call and report them.

7

I would propose that Hanlon’s Razor is appropriate for use here:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

The only thing I can think of is that it could be used as a tool to defeat a claim for unemployment insurance.

This is a no-brainer: Find a new job. It’s unlikely that anyone will prosecute this employer, and even if somebody did, it won’t benefit you in any way.

Are you collecting unemployment right now? If so, you need to take steps to protect yourself from this employer.

8

First of all, you don’t offer enough information in your original post for anyone here to provide you with an informed opinion, and that includes all the posters above. Without knowing the timeframe involved (did this happen yesterday, a year ago, thirty years ago?), without knowing your current circumstances (why is this relevant now?), and without knowing quite a bit of added data, offering you advice would be just plain unhelpful.

Secondly, as to the law involved, and your options there, if there is a significant monetary reason to see to it that you can stay working there, or to see to it that your termination of employment happens in a non-prejudicial way, I recommend you see an attorney. No attorney here will be willing to offer you advice specific to your situation, for a variety of reasons. Any advice that is offered non-specific to your situation will probably be just as unhelpful as the uninformed advice I was talking about in the first paragraph.

You can find and browse and search the Ohio Revised Code here. Most of what you’d be looking for is probably found under Title 41 Labor and Industry. However, you may find that there is no specific law broken here, as the laws involving industry tend to focus on what and how you get paid. And, again, without knowing the context this is being raised in (is the employer now trying to schedule you for shifts you said you couldn’t work?), it’s difficult to offer an opinion as to what statutes would be applicable in your case.

The website for the Ohio Division of Labor & Worker Safety may help you, as well.

9

There’s one piece of advice that’s helpful: don’t hand in a signed anything an employer without making your own photocopy of it first. Then you never have to be sorry you didn’t.

10

[QUOTE=aldiboronti]
Isn’t it far more likely that the OP made a mistake and filled in the wrong section? Why on earth would a company stoop to forgery over such a trivial matter?
[/QUOTE]

Seconding this.

Seconded because this (from the OP):

Makes me think that you shaded where you should have not shaded, or written down the hours you wanted to exclude, rather than include.

11

[QUOTE=dnooman]

Next day, the scheduling dept. has no toner in their fax machine. How convenient.

[/QUOTE]

No one else noticed this???

You need toner to RECEIVE a fax, you don’t need it to send one.*

If I were you, I would go back to who ever said “Is this your signature?” and say "No it isn’t, I can show you that it was photocopied from something else I signed here, I never signed that peice of paper, besides, even if I did sign that, I can’t work those hours, I filled out the form wrong. Ask to see the original. At that point, I’m guessing they’ll say something like, “We don’t keep originals, only copies.” To which I would reply “Show me some other copies, right now…prove that you don’t keep originals, other wise I’m not going to work here/go to the police becuase you forged my signature/call my lawyer”

BTW I would just leave now. Any company that is forging a signature over a scheduling request, is probably not worth working for.***
*okay, so I’m sure there are some machines that just cease all functions when they run out of toner, but still. At that point I would have just gone and asked for it.

***I just thought of one possible reason why they may have done this. Perhaps you forgot to sign it and someone was either going to get in trouble for forgetting to have you fill out the form all the way OR it was going to be a hassle to get it signed, so they photocopied the signature on to it not thinking you would EVER ask to see it again.

12

Do you have copies - proof? If not, you could be on very sticky ground if you make accusations. You really should speak to a lawyer: on what else have they put your signature? And this sounds like what we call Constructive Dismissal.

13

One more thing, in the future sign every single document at that company in Red ink. Unless they have color copiers, you’ll be able to tell if you are looking at a copy of your signature or an original. Of course, it doesn’t really matter at this point.

14

I am sorry but I don’t get what the motivation for this would be at all. You can’t work at those times so how would that benefit them? If you just started the position, you would be in your 90 day probationary period anyway so they don’t need a reason to let you go. I guess unless you have a reason this would benefit a company, I think you must have made a mistake in filing out the form.

15

[QUOTE=garius]
Makes me think that you shaded where you should have not shaded, or written down the hours you wanted to exclude, rather than include.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, that’s what I thought too.

16

[QUOTE=Foxy40]
I am sorry but I don’t get what the motivation for this would be at all. You can’t work at those times so how would that benefit them? If you just started the position, you would be in your 90 day probationary period anyway so they don’t need a reason to let you go. I guess unless you have a reason this would benefit a company, I think you must have made a mistake in filing out the form.
[/QUOTE]

I think it’s obvious what they’re doing. They have a nighttime shift and have trouble hiring people willing to work those hours. So they hire people under false pretenses, then once they’re on the payroll, play a little game with the paperwork to get them to work the undesirable hours. They’re betting that once someone is already in the job and getting a regular paycheck, they’ll be less inclined to walk out.

This happened to me once. I applied for a job that was advertised a certain way (with X hours/day spent on a certain unpleasant task); they hired me, and after I was on the job, they increased it to Y hours per day. If I had known that up front I would not have applied, but I didn’t complain because by that time I had already rearranged my life around the job and quitting immediately would have caused me considerable economic stress. I did find another job as quickly as I could, though.

17

[QUOTE=chimera57]
I think it’s obvious what they’re doing. They have a nighttime shift and have trouble hiring people willing to work those hours. So they hire people under false pretenses, then once they’re on the payroll, play a little game with the paperwork to get them to work the undesirable hours. They’re betting that once someone is already in the job and getting a regular paycheck, they’ll be less inclined to walk out.

[/QUOTE]

Bingo.

They need people at night, and can’t handle any more people on the day shift. None of this was brought up during the hiring process. Another co-worker said he was told up front that he’d be working nights, not the case with me, they accepted my availability as I submitted it.

The form I filled out was very clear in what it was asking for, and I can assure you that I did not fill it out incorrectly. The other co-worker I mentioned had an issue with his availability as well. He has class at 6pm, and he asked to work during the day with his shift ending at 5:50pm at the latest. They now have him starting work after his class ends, giving him an 11:00pm to 7:30am shift. he was not happy about this. I asked if he was shown his availability form, and he said he was. I asked if his was typewritten or handwritten, and he said that he was shown a copy of his handwritten form. I was shown a typed up version of my form which read something like 12am-7am, 9pm-12am availability. It should have read 7am-9pm. The form asked for when I was available to work, not when I was unavailable.

As far as the dates go, I filled out and signed the form 8-31-07 and was shown the altered version on 10-30-07. The HR department supposedly faxed the form to scheduling which is in a different suite in the same building (you have to walk outside to get between the two depts.) Scheduling said that they were out of toner and could not receive the fax. They said that they’d walk over and get the form, but that took almost three days to get done, even with me popping in to remind them every few hours, each day.

Yeah, the company sucks out loud. The good thing is that they paid for my certification, they pay a relatively decent wage, and the experience I can gain there will be quite valuable in the future. I just have to put up with some of their shit until I can get all my ducks in a row.

The HR dept. there is a madhouse during the day due to very high turnover on the various projects they hire for. I can almost guarantee that I was supposed to be told I would work nights but they forgot to tell me. Then, when I tell them the schedule I received did not match my availability, someone notices that they shouldn’t have approved an availability form that had the requests that mine had, they “accidentally” transpose the request to fit within their current hiring guidelines. Had it been my error, they could have just shown me my original request, and I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.

They did compromise an hour on my schedule, but that’s not really why I’m upset. I’m upset that they tried to tell me I signed something that I didn’t in order to suit their scheduling needs. I just can’t see how photocopying my signature onto a document I had never seen before isn’t illegal.

Well, now I know to use a red pen, and to make copies ahead of time.

18

If you feel an offense against the criminal law has occurred, contact these nice folks:
http://www.columbuspolice.org/AboutCPD/GENERAL.HTM#How%20do%20I%20compliment%20an%20officer?

If you feel that you, your rights, or your assets have been injured, you can contact these folks:
http://www.cbalaw.org/

Bar assocations are generally quite good at setting you up with an attorney who is well-qualified to practice in the particular field of law you are concerned with; much better than just opening the yellow pages.
You may be able to get a short consultation with a local attorney for free or for a very small sum of money.
In many simple situations, 5 minutes on the phone with the right lawyer will answer all your questions.

19

[QUOTE=Foxy40]
I am sorry but I don’t get what the motivation for this would be at all. You can’t work at those times so how would that benefit them? If you just started the position, you would be in your 90 day probationary period anyway so they don’t need a reason to let you go. I guess unless you have a reason this would benefit a company, I think you must have made a mistake in filing out the form.
[/QUOTE]

One of the jobs I had while I was living at my parents’ to help care for Dad (yes this is relevant) was as the QM Manager’s Assistant at a chemical factory. I’d clearly marked in my request sheet that I could not work night shift (because of the “care for Dad” thing; Mom doesn’t respect her children’s needs much, but at that point she would do things like get me out of bed at 5am to go get ice cream for Dad, he barely ate while in chemo); my contract was for an administrative position, the safety provisions were for an administrative position, the salary was for an administrative position…

I got sent to “help in the lab” as soon as I arrived. I pointed out this was actually a different position and that the company had to give me (by law) two lab coats and a pair of safety shoes. There was some grumbling, but apparently they’d never before had a chemist who could read Labor Law. I got the coats and the shoes. In theory the contract should have been different, but hey, the admin position paid better than a lab tech one :stuck_out_tongue:

Two weeks later, one of the lab workers (shift) took a medical leave for elective surgery on his knee. Turns out the actual reason to hire me was to sub for this guy. I pointed out that I’d specified I could work weekends but not shift or night. They said “you’ll do what you’re told.” Since I couldn’t, they were off a lab tech.

Why didn’t they come up front and say “it’s a sub job, about three months, shift”? I don’t know, but the bosses at that particular factory seemed to think that honest=dumb. They were the kind of people that, if they walked into the room saying “it’s so nice out today!” I’d look out the window expecting gales.

20

Signed form or no, can’t the Employer call you in at any time and say “here’s your new schedule, like it or leave?” :confused: