If I’m not to be scheduled to work witha certain supervisor due to allegations of misbehavior, can my hours legally be cut?
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If I’m not to be scheduled to work witha certain supervisor due to allegations of misbehavior, can my hours legally be cut?
I work for a fast food chain; I’ve been there for about 3 weeks now. I started off getting full-time hours, however, a couple days ago I was asked to go into the managers office. She proceeded to ask me (a female) about one of the male supervisors that I worked with. She informed me that “even though the cameras aren’t recording in our location they can still see them in the corporate office”. She seems to think that me and this supervisor are doing other things than work when it’s just me and him in the store at night closing. So now, I’m down to about 10 hours in this next work week, and she has informed me that this supervisor and I are not to work together anymore. I believe that because of this, it’s causing me to get less hours. Is any of that illegal?
Asked on March 27, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Florida
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
Yes, your employer can legally do this. The fact of the matter is that in the majority of states, including FL, most employment is what is known as "at will". Accordingly, an employee can work for an employer or not, their choice. And in turn, an employer can hire or fire an employee for any reason or no reason whatsoever, as well has increase/decrease salary/hours, promote/demote, etc as they see fit. Including who they may or may not be scheduled to work with, even if it cuts an employees hours.
The exceptions to the above would be if there is a stated company policy contrary to the way in which your situation is being handled, or there is a union/employment agreement that does not allow for such action, or this situation has arisen due to some type of discrimination.
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