My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: CA
There are many good threads on this forum describing similar circumstances, but since every case is unique I hope for some input to pass onto the person living this experience.
It’s a local recycling place. The person in the job works solo weighing incoming recycling and paying with a voucher. At the end of the day there is a simple reconciliation report.
For the ten months he worked there he had no unscheduled absences or tardies. He was well liked by almost 100% (see next paragraph) of the customers (I am one) because he was particularly efficient, bright and always friendly. I know from private conversations with him that he really enjoyed the work and from a customer perspective, it showed.
There was one incident with a problem customer – who made a formal complaint alleging an unprovoked threat of physical violence. The boss contacted the (now x-) employee who told his side of the story. The boss neither supported nor reprimanded him and that seemed to be the end of that.
Fast forward two months. One day the boss shows up and tells the employee to take a couple days off and to report back to work on such and such a day, three days later. He informed the employee that there was a problem with the financials and that money was missing and that they would be doing an audit.
The employee returned to work on the day specified. About an hour into the shift his boss showed up with another guy in tow and told him they were cutting him loose right then and there. The guy in tow was his replacement. Because their audit had revealed (I can’t remember but its like $7K or $10K) missing,
And just like that his job was no longer his job. Dismissed. Done.
Duh?
Before I go forward I certainly DID ask the x-employee whether or not he took any money from the till. He adamantly insists he did not. I believe him because I’ve had a chance to see how he operates outside the job and the confidence and trust I feel is shared by every other customer I checked it out with.
But on the day I was learning about his being fired, I asked the x-employee about the missing funds: Was the money missing, a little at a time, over an extended period of time? Or, on specific dates? He said, “No! It was one big sum. And it is a full trailer’s worth of vouchers they claim I took.”
“They think you stole the money?”
“Oh, yeah”, he says. “That’s the reason they gave for firing me.”
“Are they going to file a police report? Are you exposed to criminal charges?”
He said they told him they would NOT be filing a police report.
He applied for unemployment insurance and received two checks. At that point he got a letter from them saying something along the lines of something missing on his questionnaire that needed correcting. He didn’t gather exactly what needed to be done on that first reading and then the letter was lost. That was a couple months ago. I suggested he go to the EDD office immediately and see what needs to be done to restart the EDD payments. I told him I would do a little research to see how he might get to the bottom of this.
He is not a member of a union so he understands his employer is entitled to “unemploy” him and that he is out of a job . He was paid for hours worked but no severance.
The issue is the accusation and evident presumption of theft. It will be interesting to see what happens with his unemployment claim – that is, what exactly the employer tells the EDD person when they are contacted. And I intend to call them myself, as if I am considering hiring the fired guy and see what sort of conversation unfolds. What I do know is from several customers who independently asked the new employee “what happened to John Doe?” and the new employee told each he didn’t have details but he was let go over missing money.
My own unsolicited opinion here is that the whole thing stinks. I don’t know if I believe money was even missing, but if it were, what accounting practices prove that? Who else could have access to those funds from the administrative side? What’s the deal with not filing a police report if they believe the guy stole $10K plus/minus? Sounds like nasty business. But something needs to be done!
The last thing I will mention is that the fired employee is a Mexican national with legal status to live and here – it happens that he was the only non-white working there, the only one who has worked there in the five years I’ve dealt with the business and he was replaced with a white guy. Although he comes across as being very together and intelligent English is his second language and some people have problems communicating when one is less proficient. I speak only English and he and I had no problems understanding each other.
Any suggestions as to action that the fired guy can take to clear himself? The fact that his replacement has commented to customers that he doesn’t know the details but heard that “he got fired because money was missing” also needs to be addressed.
Sorry to go on so long but I hoped to be as clear as possible.
Thank you.

