Can I be lawfully terminated for not changing my time sheets after they were completed and signed, both by me and the supervisor? When I started working I had overtime hours. The office manager told me that I would not be paid more than 80 hours, I asked why, she said that it was not authorized. However, my overtime had been authorized by her boss's son, who had authority, but who she dislikes.

I asked the boss if that was the case, he went to see her and told her that he authorized my time. I thought his authorization was enough, but when I received my check it was not complete. She had reported all the hours worked, but no overtime. I asked the boss if there was a mistake, he went to tell her that she needed to adjust my time. She agreeded to report it in the following pay period. The next pay check came and it was not adjusted still, when I asked her, she told me that I had no extra hours. I asked the boss again and asked her in writting to fix my paycheck. She replied to him that there were no hour owed to me since she had reported all the hours.

I had to explain the boss that she had reported all the hours as regular time but no overtime, it took another pay period to adjust my hours. Before she gave me my check, she told me that I needed to change all my time sheets and write down that I had worked less time that what I actually worked. I told her I could not do that before talking to the boss.

I talked to the boss and explained that I had been paid for that time and it would be a lie if I changed the hours to be less that what I worked. He told me to leave them unchanged. I asked him if after my trial period he was considering to let me go since it was clear that the office manager had problems with me being outspoken. He told me not to worry about that. But today, he told me that he was sorry to let me go, that the office manager had reported to him that I was problematic, and that I was a bad distraction for the office performance. Of course, I know that can't be the real reason, I worked isolated from everybody and never created any scene when the office manager came to mistreat me or when she discriminated against me. I did not want any problems so I kep quiet.

There are two other people working there, a hispanig lady and a white lady, the office manager discrimated against me and the hispanic lady, we were the only ones of color. However, she gave an excellent treatment to the white lady. I could see discrimination against the hispanic lady, when they approached me to accept their words against her, and I did not accept, they started to find mistakes on me. At first was only a bad case of bullying, but gradually increased into clear discrimination against me too.

The office manager does not allow the hispanic lady to fill out her time sheet. The office manager decides her time and the hispanic lady agrees to anything. She keeps quiet about the discrimination too, I can see why now. I spoke out and I was fired, perhaps if the hispanic lady was to complain, she would be fired too.

I know that there is a bad situation of discrimination, but in my personal case I wonder if I have a case against the company for being terminated just because I refused to lie on my time sheets?

-- Luisa Stowe (psworkshop@aol.com), March 04, 2005