California Labor Violation—Illegal Drugs an Excuse for Termination

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Lakeport, CA Kevin was fired for taking drugs, but he says that is ridiculous. "I've never taken illegal drugs," says Kevin. "I believe I was fired because I asked for a raise so I was wrongfully terminated and that's a violation of the California labor law."

"I found out three weeks ago that I was getting fired - I am friends with the owner's brother," says Kevin, who managed the detail shop at a car lot. " That was Wednesday, my day off. On Thursday I confronted the two supervisors but they knew nothing about it and the owner was at a car auction.

After the supervisors said I wasn't going to be fired, they (obviously) spoke with the owner and Jeff, the shop manager, fired me the next day. He was almost in tears; he was really broken up about this. I called the owner after I was fired. He said we would talk when he got back from the auction but he never came back to work.

I was confused. I worked here for six years; I put my heart and soul into this place. I had a meeting with the supervisors and the general manager and I told them I was really upset: the owner said I was taking drugs. I have never missed a day's work, only when my mother died. I think he fired me because I asked for a raise a week beforehand. And he just hired a Spanish guy for $9 per hour; I was making $13 and asked for a $1 per hour raise. It had been more than two years since I talked about money and I was due for a raise.

I was the most loyal and dedicated employee at the car lot and there is no reason for this. I do take prescription drugs sometimes but never at work. You can look at my work records. Unfortunately California is an at-will state so he needed some excuse to terminate me. He certainly can't fire me for being late or not doing my job. People who do drugs don't work like me; showing up every day at 7am and never having a complaint.

I did work faster than anyone - you could ask any of my former co-workers, all 15 of them.

I have a family to support and it is not right that I am fired because he wants to save money. Morally this is wrong. I just can't believe he would do this and what makes me even madder is that he couldn't even do it himself.

It all boils down to economics when an employer doesn't want to pay you, but this decision to fire me is going to come back to haunt him financially because it would take two people to do my job. And I don't even know if this new employee is here legally…"

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