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  1. #1

    Lightbulb Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Connecticut

    My mother was fired from job due to stealing in March 2017. She works at Shoprite as a cashier and has been working there for 19 years. During her employment, her record has been good and has received numerous compliments on her service.

    · On March 2017, one of the customer complained that mom shorted her money so the manager at the store counted her draw and it was even.

    · The next day, she was told to go take a lunch break while someone else managed her draw. When she came back she was given a different draw and later on was called to the security office.


    · The security officer told her that her draw is over $20 and told her that they have a video of her “putting her hands in her pockets after 3 or 4 customers left from the first customer that complained”

    · My mom has a medical history she gets low blood sugar and keeps candy in her pocket to remedy that if she feels her health is getting bad. My mom told the security officer about candies and he told her “he doesn’t care and insists that she gives the $20 back” which she did. After he received the money he told my mom that you are terminated.


    My mom does have a note from her doctor that she can eat a candy when she feels nervous. The store doesn’t have a proof of her actually taking the money from the drawer only her putting hands in the pocket.

    Is there something can be done for her?

  2. #2
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    A termination is only wrongful under the law if it's based specifically and directly on one or more protected characteristics. Examples of protected characteristics include things like race, gender, religion, age and disability. Being accused of theft, falsely or otherwise, is not a protected characteristic. Nothing you have posted indicates your mother was fired based on a protected characteristic as defined by law. Ergo, your mother's termination was legal.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Thank you for the reply. She does have a medical history of seizures and that happens when she experiences low blood sugar. She had a seiuzre attack in the past and the manager told us at that point that if it happens again they would have to let her go. So now everytime she feels she feels her sugar getting low she eats a candy as a percaution. which explains why she had her hand in the pocket.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Quote Quoting Ruchi Kapoor
    View Post
    Thank you for the reply. She does have a medical history of seizures and that happens when she experiences low blood sugar. She had a seiuzre attack in the past and the manager told us at that point that if it happens again they would have to let her go. So now everytime she feels she feels her sugar getting low she eats a candy as a percaution. which explains why she had her hand in the pocket.
    This was not a wrongful termination.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Had she been terminated for having the seizure you might have an ADA case but she wasn't. She was terminated for suspected theft and there is nothing wrongful abut that.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Let me see if I can make it clearer.

    In order for a termination to be considered wrongful under the law, there must be a specific law or public policy that expressly prohibits an employer from terming an employee for that reason. A wrongful termination does not mean that she was fired for something she didn't do - it means that her termination in some way violates the law.

    She may have been termed unfairly but on the information you have provided, it was not (legally) a wrongful term.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Thank you for your reply. My mom does have a note from her Neurologist on eating a candy or something sweet if she feels her sugar is getting low. My mom was fired because her hand was in pocket and the reason it was in pocket was because she was trying to take care of her medical need and in my mom's case prevention of seizure.

    i may be over my head with this, but due to this accusation of stealing her name is defamed at work and among friends/family. There's got to be some law that can help my mom.

  8. #8
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    Massachusetts
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Outside of FMLA, which does not apply here, a doctor's note has no force in law.

    No law exists which prohibits an employer from firing an employee because her hand is in her pocket. Therefore, she can be fired for this reason.

    But you are free to discuss this with an attorney in your state and see whether or not some detail you have not described here might make a difference. I do not deny that is a possibility.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Thank you for your insight.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    Default Re: Wrongfully Terminated Based on the False Accusation of Stealing

    Quote Quoting Ruchi Kapoor
    View Post
    “he doesn’t care and insists that she gives the $20 back” which she did.

    Is there something can be done for her?
    She can file for unemployment. That earlier sentence does bother me. There is no way if I didn't steal the $20 that I'd just take a bill out of my pocket to make things right.

    Try to understand that even if nothing out of the ordinary happened that day, the employer still could have fired her.

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