Re: suffering backlash

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On 8/27/08, kelly wrote:
> On 8/27/08, Terry wrote:
>> On 8/22/08, disgusted wrote:
>>> So, being tired of hearing about the way our store manager
>>> spoke to a coworker I wrote an annon. letter to our parent
>>> companies executive v. p. (couple of notes here) harrased
>>> employee is gay male-offending manager is male. district
>>> manager is male and has office inside the store that this
>>> took place in. - the tight knit friendship between
>>> district and store managers is why I chose to jump as high
>>> up as possible to make sure it didn't get "handled"
>>> incorrectly.
>>>
>>> In the meantime I left the accounting dept. to return to
>>> my previous position on the floor. I knew since this was
>>> my wish that I would be giving up the 2 pay raises I had
>>> aquired for going to the dept. 3 1/2 yrs prior. this
>>> totaled 70cents and hour diff.
>>>
>>> It took the company 2 months before they changed the pay
>>> rate. When it happened the district manager had a fit at
>>> my HR person because she changed it by the .70 and he
>>> decided to make it more. He had her change it down by
>>> $3.55 an hour instead of the .70cents.
>>>
>>> This just happened to be at the same time the district
>>> manager was notified by exectutive vp that the harrasement
>>> had been filed.
>>>
>>> The Dm notified the store manager and allowed him to have
>>> a closed door meeting alone with the harrassee. The
>>> harrassee asked DM for a private mtg. which was agreed to
>>> then on the day of mtg. DM calls in and tells asst. he
>>> wont be in because it was nice out and he wanted to go
>>> golf with... store manager.
>>>
>>> so when I get my pay stub I see that my pay rate is
>>> horridly wrong. Store manager says- oh I knew you would
>>> come see me when you got your pay stub. We had a bit of a
>>> discussion- with HR present. It was determined that the
>>> pay rate change was not correct and should not have been
>>> done.
>>>
>>> The store manager took a very long time working on this.
>>> DM is constantly "unavailable" and yet he is ONLY one who
>>> can undo this. It has been 2 months since the pay cut and
>>> harrassement notification. My pay isn't fixed and the
>>> victim still hasn't had a mtg with DM and is forced to
>>> continue to work with the store manager. Can't afford to
>>> leave the job, not that he should have to.
>>>
>>> So, my guess here is that DM and/or store manger figured
>>> out who sent the letter and all this is backlash for it.
>>> Either way they are not fixing my pay. What are my options
>>> here? Is it easier to take them up on just the pay problem
>>> or believe that it is backlash and take them up on that?
>>>
>>> So complicated and every lawyer I find for employement law
>>> only represents employers. No wonder no one ever wants to
>>> file harrasement charges.
>>>
>>> Thanks for any help or info you can give.
>>
>> What State are you in? Whether retaliation for reporting
>> discrimination is protected depends upon the answer to that
>> question. In the meantime, perhaps you should consider
>> contacting the VP again (this time not anonymously.) He
>> obviously took action the last time; there's no reason not
>> to believe he won't tell the manager to address the pay
>> issue immediately.
>
> Nebraska.
> I actually ended up contacting our HR in next district level
> up and wasn't announ. I flat told them I felt I was being
> retaliated against because of the letter I had written. When
> they found out my complaint had gone to vp and not them they
> were very concerened about how it was all handled at my store
> level. They said they would be contacting the vp and start
> working on this.
> I ended up quiting last night because my store manager had
> finally told me monday that there was no way my pay would be
> anything but the $8.20. I called into work and said that I
> couldnt work that shift because I felt that legally they would
> say it would be accepting the pay rate and I wouldnt accept
> it.
> I told the local HR to pay out all my vacation at the current
> rate and I would continue to fight for the rest.
>
> I've decided to start looking for a lawyer that specializes in
> sexual harassement cases since thats how this all started.
>
> Any more advice would be greatly appriciated.

The problem is that sexual orientation isn't protected by
federal law nor by Nebraska discrimination laws (which is why I
asked what State you're in.) Since discrimination based on
sexual orientation isn't prohibited, the there are no
protections for making a complaint of same and therefore any
retalition that occured was not illegal.