My question involves defamation in the state of: Connecticut.
I currently work at employer that Ive been at a little over 6 years. I am one of the original and first employees of this company and have worked hard over the years to build it up to over 170 employees. I have never received a bad review, in fact all my reviews have been excellent. I have never received a customer complaint and my hard work has actually brought in tons of new work for the company. I have not missed a day of work in over 3 years. Recently, our original manager took a position higher up the chain and he placed a new manager in his place. This new manager and I havent always seen eye to eye prior to her promotion and it seems she hasnt forgotten. In April, I had my yearly review and everything was fine. Then about a month ago i received a meeting notice to meet with her and HR.
In this meeting she presented me with a form telling me I am being removed from my position and demoted. The demotion includes less pay and less benefits and higher cost of insurance. All that she could say was she receieved "complaints" but refused to eloborate. On the form it was full lies saying I was not fulfulling my obligations in my position. I imediatly stated that that was not true and my customer scores reflect that. My teammembers like me and I have perfect attendance for 3 years straight.
Never the less, she wanted me to sign this form stating this. I insisted that she add that I did not agree. she also added it was for informational purposes only. I also said to them that they should have atleast given me a warning so i could "correct" any complaints they may have. This manager has been trying to hold me down ever since she started. I feel this has hurt me financial, prevents me from getting promoted and threatens my families stability. I have copies of all my perfect reviews from day 1. I also kept all the customer awards i received for outstanding service (16 in all, the next person has 3). I feel this manager is a bully and is threatened by me professionally.
Do I have recourse? I feel as though I am on eggshells.
I should also add that this manager has been known to do this to other people. I've seen people let go for what they said was "lack of work" but then process them out as a performance issue. I dont know if that affects unemployement. She has also discriminated against and employee that is disabled (broken back).

