Terminated For Improperly Borrowing A Library Book

I am hoping for some help from anyone that might have had any experience with this. I work for a very large hospital system and have been there for appx 6 years with a faultless work record. About 5 weeks ago I was terminated for "alleged theft" (of a library book) and "unauthorized use of an ID badge". These are the main facts of the situation: I was scheduled to work in OB, Peds, NICU of hospital which require use of a badge to swipe in and out. I had misplaced my badge at home (not lost or stolen) and my supervisor's assistant gave me the department's "spare badge" that used to belong to a former employee who had been terminated and told me that it was a spare badge. I still had my regular ID badge on me with my name...etc. I went to the library to meet with librarian about a book for school and as it was the wrong edition, I told her that I wanted to check my friend's book to make sure they weren't different. she placed the book on the reserve shelf and told me to come back any time and pick it up. The next day, after school, (appx 7:45 PM). I stopped by the library with 6 year old dtr and friend (who also works for same system) and we got the book from the reserve shelf and my friend took out one other book. I stuck the cards in my pocket, my dtr began acting up and we inadvertantly left w/o leaving the library cards (the old fashioned method). I heard nothing, about 6 days later I was suspended (so was my girlfriend) this was the day the books were due for return and I had them on me to return and gave them the books with the cards and after a week of "investigation" I was terminated for theft and id badge use and my girlfriend was reinstated. The person that gave me the badge had no consequence. There was no evidence or proof of any kind that I intended to steal the book. In addition, my supervisor's assistant clearly violated hospital policies re the badge and although hr acknowledged this, they did nothing to her. I am currently fighting this through their internal system, but I have been told by a lawyer that it seems that this is a pretext for something else. PLEASE....HELP!!! Thank you

What does the attorney think it is a pretext for?

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Quoting cbg

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What does the attorney think it is a pretext for?

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I would like to know that as well.

she is not sure, but she said that something is "definitely very wrong". The inconsistencies in disciplinary action between me and other two people involved, the seemingly very excessive action of termination over a library book. Do you have any thoughts about my story. If this helps, although this seems like a wild, far out story, I have told you everything and there is nothing else to it. Thanks for your reply

I really dont know. After she explained pretext to me, (I am not a lawyer, obviously), it forced me to think about this more. I am in currently in the 3rd step of their internal problem resolution process (which personally, I think it is just a bunch of BS lip service, but you have to exhaust this before any legal action). During this upcoming meeting, I have prepared a statement with her assistance and basically, I address all the areas in which they screwed up, ie violated their own policies, the abusive, accusatory way in which I was interrogated, the fact that some of the interrogation was conducted in an open area where there were other people...etc and have verifiable facts to back up everything I will be addressing. My hope is that some higher up will see that something was clearly not right in terminating me.

I have to admit that I find the facts suspicious as well. However, I don't want to go so far as to state categorically that you were or were not wrongfully terminated without some idea of what kind of pretext we might be discussing.

BTW, just so we're all on the same page, a wrongful term does not mean what most people think it means. To have a case for wrongful termination, there must be a specific law (or public policy) that is violated by your termination.

To put that into terms related to your situation, on paper your termination is not illegal because there is no law prohibiting them from terming you for either alleged theft or violating the company policy on badge use. However, when you add the question of pretext into it, there *may* be an illegal term involved, depending on the nature of the pretext. If this is a pretext for firing you because you are over 40, or Hispanic, or female, and managment no longer wants anyone who is over 40, Hispanic, or female in your postition, (all of which are illegal reasons to term someone) that would be a wrongful term because it is a pretext for an illegal reason. However, if they termed you for alleged theft and violating the company policy on bedge use because they wanted your job for the boss's niece, that would not be a wrongful term, even though it may be a pretext, because it is legal to fire you so that they can hire the boss's niece and therefore there is no illegal basis behind it.

Even in an at-will state, there are illegal reasons to term someone. What we don't know here, without more information, is if your situation is one of them.

thank you for your information. It was helpful. I understand that there is a term, I believe it is, "presumption of ...." I cant remember the whole term, but what I was told was that if you cant identify any obvious reason form of discrimination, that you can go on the assumption that there must be some wrongful reason and go from there. I am continuing through their bs, lip service problem resolution process and I will see what happens. It is my only hope that when these monster hospital systems know that someone they terminated has undeniable evidence of thier slimy termination practices that maybe once the higher ups become involved, they will reconsider. I cant imagine they want or need that kind of publicity.

I asked you a further question in my PM. I know the concept you're talking about and if you can answer the question, either here or by PM, it'll give me a better idea if it applies here.

I havent looked at this site for some time, but there has been alot of movement since my last posting. I had my 3rd phase of the problem resolution meeting and went to this meeting prepared with a statement that both an attorney and a sr. vp of hr (both good friends) helped me prepare. What became painfully clear during this meeting is that, not only does my employer have not one leg to stand on, but I firmly believe that they now know that they seriously screwed up and falsely accused me of theft, (this is based on their actions at the meeting and that the one piece of "evidence" they thought they had, video surveillance footage, incriminated them and helped me. From what I understand, I have learned that I actually DO have rights even as an at will employee, including defamation and defamation per se and wrongful termination for a false accusation of a crime. The security guards majorly screwed up in their investigation including, suspending me "In public" and recklessly and frivously accusing me of a crime that I in NO way whatsoever committed and for which they have absolutely no proof. I will await their verdict from this last meeting, but I now know that I am not the sitting duck in the world of at will employment.

Good for you!

BTW, I don't think anyone suggested that you were a "sitting duck" - we've been discussing all along the possibility that this was an illegal term. It just was impossible to tell with the information we could get on a message board. I can't find anywhere that it was suggested to you on this forum that you had no options.

Please keep us posted.