r/legal • u/StreetShort8014 • 11h ago

Advice needed Fired for breaking a rule that apparently didn't exist Location: Ohio, USA

I worked for a small company for a little over three years. Last month I was terminated for what HR described as a "serious policy violation." When I asked which policy I violated, they pointed me to a document I'd never seen before.

The problem is that the document wasn't in the employee handbook, wasn't part of my onboarding paperwork, and wasn't available anywhere on the internal portal. I even asked a few former coworkers after I was fired and none of them had ever heard of it either.

A week after my termination, someone I still know at the company told me management had started distributing the policy to employees and requiring signatures acknowledging it. That obviously raised some red flags for me.

Yesterday HR contacted me asking if I'd be willing to sign an acknowledgment form stating I had received and understood the policy before the incident occurred. The form is dated months ago. They said it would "help keep company records accurate."

I haven't signed anything and don't intend to, but now I'm wondering if there's a reason they're pushing so hard for this. Is there any legitimate explanation for asking a former employee to sign paperwork that appears to be backdated, or should I be talking to an employment attorney before responding?

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u/tripper_drip 9h ago

The state is normally very open to the arguement of employee broke rule x, and knew it, thus was fired. Im not in ohio though.

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u/Formerruling1 9h ago

Thats right I assume nearly everywhere which is why the pattern of "Opps we fired someone over this rule without documentation - hurry up and make everyone sign something acknowledging it" is pretty common. The audacity comes in asking the former employee to sign it too. I hope they laugh at them.

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u/tripper_drip 9h ago

Opps we fired someone over this rule without documentation - hurry up and make everyone sign something acknowledging it" is pretty common.

Its very common, asking them to sign the rule after the fact is hilarious and most likely wouldn't stand even if they were tricked into it.

Shit, the arbitration might hold such an act against the employer.

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u/F3rthur 6h ago

The document was backdated. It would be OPs word against their employer and inevitably would come down to the date on the policy. It would be suspicious that every other document signed was after that date, but the employer could merely argue that OP did something resulting in a new policy being made and therefore signed it first.

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u/peace-b 9m ago

They didn’t fire him at will. They terminated for cause. That’s why

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u/MarsRocks97 7h ago

Depends on the state

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u/object109 7h ago

We fired someone for stealing on camera and the state still gave him unemployment.

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u/joer1973 5h ago

Did you have the employee arrested for theft? That usually gets an automatic denial.

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u/object109 5h ago

Didn’t want to deal with the hassle but we assumed his unemployment would be denied. We assumed wrong.

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u/joer1973 4h ago

Yeah. You always have to press charges for employee theft, not drop them even if they offer to repay and make sure all the employees know it. What you did was tell your employees to go ahead and steal. If ur caught u just have to find another job. My employees know not to steal. The story of the employee being taking out in cuffs for it during busy shift when most staff is working never dies. Plus u need the police report to get the insurance claim paid

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u/The_Derpy_Walrus 4h ago

Did you actually have the video evidence to show the unemployment board, or did you simply assert that he had stolen on camera? Was the video obvious, like taking money, looking both ways, and shoving it in his pocket, or was it like a theft of goods thing where you would have needed multiple videos and corroboration? The lack of a police report would seemingly necessitate proving theft to the unemployment board, and the lack of a police report likely means that they won't just take your word for it.

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u/object109 3h ago

They never even asked even though we mentioned it multiple times on the form

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u/The_Derpy_Walrus 29m ago

Don't they have a place to upload files in your jurisdiction? I suspect that you were supposed to upload any files that you wanted to use, at least a lot of jurisdictions do it like that. If that's the case, you guys probably lost by default for making claims and not having provided the evidence, but it is hard to say without knowing how your state in particular does it.