I was fired but my ex-employer says I quit.

by Angie

(Florida Unemployment Appeal Hearing)

I was fired from my job on January 26th of this year. It was during an audit that my district manager fired me because as a cashier my drawer was turning up short quite a bit that month but I know for a fact that I wasn’t stealing or miscounting the change to the customers. Well after being fired about a few weeks to I think a month the manager that was present the night I was terminated was then fired himself. Apparently after I was fired there was an investigation to see what was going on because I wasn’t the only cashier that there drawer was short a few times but I wasn’t like the others that would pay the difference of the drawer out of my own pocket because I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong. I was told they caught that manager in the cameras stealing money and that’s why they fired him. So now my question would be since they caught the person or the “reason” of why I was fired why couldn’t I get my job back? So I tried over and over to go back but I was always denied my return. At one point I was told I couldn’t get my job back because once fired I couldn’t be rehired. So I just let it be and tried looking for another job. Months passed and still no job so I had no choice but to apply for unemployment because I had things that needed to be paid. So on June 2nd I applied for unemployment and I was eligible and soon enough I was collecting unemployment. Then on June 21st I was told by one of the kitchen managers from that job that the general manager received an e-mail from some lady asking him to give her more information on why I got fired (most likely someone from unemployment). That day the kitchen manager also told me that she found out that when they filed my paperwork they put that I voluntarily quit. Five months since I was fired up to that date and not one person mentioned to me that “I quit,” not a single person because no one even knew. This was something they decided to do because as of January 26th the words that came out of the district managers mouth that night was that I have to be terminated. So where do they get that I quit? Who knows. There’s cameras in that office. I’m pretty sure the tears flowing down my face aren’t because I decided to quit. One of the managers from that store (Jose) was moved to a new store to become general manager there. He’s the only manager that has been trying to help me through all this. He was told some time after I got fired that once he had got his own store that he could rehire me at that location (this was before I knew that my paperwork said that I quit). So on June 23rd Jose e-mailed this lady to check my status to see if I can be rehired at his store. Then on June 25th he got a response saying that she said I can be rehired. Then on June 29th he even got the okay from corporate to rehire me. I thought everything was going great. I figured I would just drop my unemployment and start working again but then June 30th once again I get bad news. He called me to tell me that he couldn’t rehire me because the district manager who fired me threatened him saying that if he hired me at his store that he’ll (Jose) get fired. So now to make matters worse I get a letter for an appeal hearing stating that my ex-employer says I voluntarily quit for personal reasons and that continued work was available. But how many times did I try going back and I was denied. You can ask anyone I worked with. They’ll tell you how great of a worker I was. I was never involved in any problems, when they needed me I was always there, I was never written up (never even written up for any of the times my drawer cam up short), and I never got in trouble. When I filed for unemployment I filed saying I was terminated which is exactly what happened but now they want to go against that saying that I quit voluntarily which is NOT true.

I have no proof or evidence that I was fired other then that manager that was there when it happened but he’s best friends with the general manager who’s pretty much starting this appeal so i highly doubt he’ll take my side.I never signed any papers. The only thing they probably have against me is the paper where THEY put that i quit. But thats a false statement. I’m pretty sure they’re just fighting this so there taxes wont go up. Is there anything I can do or say?

Hi Angie .. I removed the rest of your name because it is not wise to do so on this site.

I’m also going to keep this answer short as I’ve addressed it many many times.

You have the right to subpoena relevant document from the employer and submit documents. You also have the right to subpoena witnesses.

I suspect your employer uses an unemployment cost control company and that you were coded out in payroll improperly and that is why they responded you voluntarily quit for personal reason

The response is the same language used for any generic claims response from both the companies I used to work for.

Chris