
Termination vs Probation
I was working at a bank and there's a process that has to be followed when removing the bags. It's done under dual control. My assistant manager and I were removing bags on this particular day. She was right there when the vault was unlocked and as soon as I began pulling the bags out, she walked over to the other vault and unlocked it (alone). As I put all of the bags on the counter, she came back over to verify that everything was out of the vault. All of the bags were recorded in the log and she counted and verified the bags that had been logged in. A couple of days later, one of the vendors came to the bank to get their receipts. They left and came back about 1 hour later and said a receipt was missing...we checked the log and saw that they received a receipt for every bag (12) that was in the vault and recorded. They said there were 13 bags dropped (please keep in mind that they have been known to say they dropped a certain amount and didn't)...anyway, I digress!! There was an investigation and I was terminated with an insinuation that I took one of the bags. Pictures were pulled and it showed that I was pulling the bags out of the vault, putting them on the counter and the assistant manager was opening the other vault (alone). The pictures showed her coming back over to me when I was putting the last few bags on the counter...showed her looking in the vault, and counting and verifying the logged bags. I was terminated and she was put on probation. In order to collect unemployment, I had to go to a deputy hearing. It was found that I didn't TAKE a bag, so I was told I was terminated for failing to follow dual control procedure, so I was approved to receive unemployment; however, she was only put on probation. How is that fair in any sense of the word when she was my superior and knew the dual control procedure had to be followed? I enjoyed working in the bank and have not been able to get a job in the bank since.
Your boss, who has more responsibility than you, the one who broke protocol, wasn't fired?! Did you have any prior warnings or were you on probation? Sounds like a wrongful termination case to me. They just switched reasons for termination to cover their collective asses. Do you live in an 'at will' state? They probably think you're too far down the food chain to challenge them. I don't know what your finances are like but maybe you can get some legal advice and/or free legal advice. If they think you have a valid case then shop around and see if you can find a lawyer who will work on contingency. Just start going down the list of law offices or lawyers and send e-mails or give them a call. BTW what they did to you was horrible and unacceptable.