My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: AL
A little background: I was hired by an employment agency to work for an accountant as a receptionist. The accountant paid the agency $12/hr and I got $8/hr. During that time I worked overtime once and was paid time and a half for .50 hours. After I completed the 400 required hours the accountant hired me permanently. Overtime pay was never discussed between the employer and I. After a couple months of working there I was asked to stay late a couple of times and accumulated 1hr 27mins of overtime during a 2 week period. I received my pay stub on 11/01/11 from the woman who did our pay roll "Judy"* (*name has been changed) and it had the correct hours on there but I was being paid my normal hourly wage ($10) for all hours worked. The boss wasn't there and so thinking this may be a mistake since I had been paid time and a half for OT before, I went into "Judy's" office and asked her "Is it normal to not be paid time and a half for overtime here?" She said "yes". I said "That is illegal, it is a federal law to be paid time and a half for overtime for non salaried employees". She said "No it isn't because of some exemption, hang on I'll show it to you online" So I go sit back at my desk and she never shows me this supposed exemption. I left it at that. When the Boss returned he came to my desk and asked for his messages, I never said a word about it because I wanted to check for myself before I pursued anything. He then went to her office and she apparently told him I had asked her about the overtime. He then came back to my desk and screamed at me "You can pack your things and leave, you are fired, if you aren't happy with the way things are done here then you don't need to work here and you can call the dept of labor and ask them all about it." I said Okay and left.
I applied for unemployment immediately and told them what happened. They then called me a few weeks later and told me that he told them I was fired for being disrespectful to an employee and had been told not to be disrespectful before and that I told him that I "made more on unemployment than I did working there". She said is that correct? I said no, its all untrue. I told her again what happened and that was it. (I also told her I never said the thing about making more on unemployment either because that would be totally untrue) A week or so later I got a letter saying I was denied benefits because of willful misconduct.
I appealed and had my hearing today. The employer completely changed his story this time. He said that I had been told to come to him if I had any issues and I went to "Judy" instead and he fired me because of that. The unemployment officer asked him "Did you ever specifically tell the employee about any policy in place to not talk about wages with another employee?" He admitted that no he had not. After he finished she asked me if I had any questions for him, I was stumped because I did not expect him to take this route at all. So I said no. He then had Judy as a witness and he asked her a couple questions that basically made it look like I was just complaining to her, not actually asking her a question about it. Then it was my turn to ask her questions. I asked her "Were you or were you not in charge of payroll for our office" She admitted yes she was. I then asked her "Did I not first ask you whether it was normal to not be paid overtime?" She lied and said I never asked her anything. It was then my turn to say my statement and I basically told them everything I stated before and I also stated that I wasn't intentionally going behind his back to ask her or complain about it, I was asking her because I thought it may have been a mistake and she did the payroll and he wasn't there so I felt she was the appropriate person to ask. He then asked me a question about whether he ever told me to come to him with any issues I have. I admitted yes he had (I should have mentioned at this point that it was not like a rule, it was more like "come to me with any problems you have") but that I had never gone to other employees with my issues in the past. ( I was trying to point out here that this was a one time occurrence)
My question is this, can not "going to other employees with any issues" be considered a company policy? Especially since I was only asking the employee who did our payroll whether or not we got paid for overtime? There were many times he was not in the office where I had to go to "Judy" with my problems or questions. I think it is pretty unrealistic to expect me to never ask her any questions especially about payroll when she is the one that does the payroll. I am extremely nervous about this and feel like there is more I could have said to defend my case like the fact that I was never told I was being fired for going to "Judy". Also I think they should consider the fact that he changed his story from what he said in the beginning. What do you think?
Also if what he said were true, that I was fired for complaining to another employee instead of going to him directly, would that be reason for me to be disqualified from unemployment? Especially if it were a one time occurrence?

