I mad as hell cause my boss fired me yesterday. :mad: I worked at a mortgage company for about 2 months. The pay agreement was 6.50 hr plus commission. I had about 10,000 dollars in commission coming to me from loans that I originated. Yesterday my boss tells me that I should be more like my co-worker, Josh.
Let me tell you about Josh. He is the biggest ass-kisser I have ever seen. He carries my bosses DJ equipment (thats right mortgages by day, kareoke by night). He washes his car. HE WORKS FOR FREE. He comes in early and works extra hours for free. Of course he gets special treatment for this. He doesn’t actually do his job, because he is too busy being my boss’ personal assisitant.
Basically yesterday my boss told me to start working for free or else. I told him it isnt fair that Josh gets special treatment for working for free. Then he fired me. Jerk. Here’s the worst part: He took all of my loans away from me, so now he gets the money without doing any work at all.
My question (after all the ranting): Can you legally fire someone for refusing to work for free?
Okay. I probably give as much free legal advice as anybody, and I do it when others won’t. But here, I have to tell you. TALK TO A LAWYER IN YOUR AREA SOON.
You might have a lawsuit; you might not. Others will tell you to walk away. Some will tell you your boss can fire you for any reason. Fact is, you might have a lawsuit and you might not. You need to talk to a lawyer in your area. Look in the yellow pages under attorneys-employment, or something like that, or call the local bar association.
In some cases, you might be able to sue for your commissions, even if you don’t have a case for wrongful termination.
There is also information out there about the Fair Labor Standards Act. But there may be state laws that help you more.
You haven’t posted enough information for anyone to give you meaningful legal advice. AND YOU REALLY NEED TO TALK TO A LAWYER.
Most of them will not charge you for a first meeting.
If not, you’re likely screwed. Absent a contract stating otherwise, an employer can fire you for pretty much any reason, barring racial/religious/gender discrimination and so on.
I just thought I’d mention that one of the reasons the former Congressman Jim Traficant got in trouble (ie, put in jail and kicked out of the House) was that he was making his staff work on his houseboat and farm for free. Maybe that was only a problem because his staff were federal employees, I dunno. But you should see a lawyer to see if you have a case.
Suing employers over labor practices ain’t like suing someone who rear-ended while driving. They don’t sue for you and take money only from the settlement or suit. No freebies. You need multiple layers of thousand dollar bills to retain the lawyer, then pay thousands for billable hours, mail phone calls, etc
You need someone to take this pro bono (you pay zilch), but that ain’t gonna happen.
You’d have some shot if you were part of a protected group (minority, older, female, disabled, etc) because a lawyer might sink his teeth into that and take his cut from a settlement or payout.
Looks like you got canned and are bitter, but that won’t get you much but a notch of experience. Live and learn.
Consider it an education. Did you really want to keep working for a guy liike that?
.
If you can make and close a sale, surely there is somethign better out there for you.
I don’t think you coulg get him for wrongful dismissal, but you may have a case for the comissions. You might even be able to get that in small claims court, depending on your state.
I doubt you have a case for wrongful dismissal. Most states allow people to be fired for no reason at all.
However, if you have a contract detailing your commision plan, I’d guess you’d have a case to sue for the money he hasn’t paid you. You earned that money; it’s illegal for an employer to refuse to pay you for work done before you were fired.
This should be applicable whether or not you have a written contract. Regardless of whether one might have a wrongful termination, one always has the right to be paid what has already been earned.
One more try. Having looked at the profile, I see that here would be a good place to start looking. Or, as I said before, in the yellow pages under attorneys-employment.
This is a huge overgeneralization, we discussed at-will employment in another thread. But there are exceptions to the at-will rule. A lawyer in Sky’s state can tell her whether she fits within an exception or not.
Again, much will depend on the terms of the contract and local law. Sky needs to talk to a lawyer.
IANAL etc. but can I just butt in for a second to point out a little peeve of mine, which is the apparent assumption that in the absence of a written contract there is no contract? I deal with this on my job every day. Customers call in to break their contracts and think they don’t have to pay the penalty for it because there was no written contract. Oral contracts are legal and binding in all 50 states, even Louisiana, and in the absence of a written employment contract Skytiger had an oral employment contract that is every bit as binding. It is of course much harder to prove the terms of an oral contract but the contract still exists.
1.)Often people will roll over and place nice once a lawyer get involved; they figure they have nothing to lose by trying to screw some-one over. Even if the lawyer takes 50% of what you collect just for writing a letter, you’ll still be better off.
2.)You’re probably not the first person this guy has done this to, and if you don’t try to stop him, you definitely won’t be the last. You have a responsiblity to go after this guy.
Agreed. I run into this all the time. A contract is a contract; oral or written. Again, some states require commission contracts to be written. And the terms of oral commission agreements are notoriously difficult to prove.
Gfactor and others have been a great help, let me add, clarify one or two things:
My first firm considered wrongful termination suits its bread and butter. While we charged a consultation fee, we (well they, as I rarely did that type of work) mostly worked on contigency, but we had a contigency/hourly split as well (paying hourly reduced the contigency fee which was I thought was onerous, e.g. 40%). Consultation fees are typically free. Bring with you any sort of evidence relating to your agreed upon pay rate. You have some serious coin coming to you. A good number of our clients were making less than $60k/yr.
The question you posed in bold isn’t really at issue (re: fired for not working for free), in my legal opinion (btw, IANYL, etc.). The issue at hand is your lost commissions and whatever is owed you on the $6.50/hr rate. Whether you were terminated wrongfully or not is something you should pursue with your lawyer. You should at least get paid for the work you did.
