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Naseem Mahamad (age 19) started employment as a Bell Person with Residence Inn by Marriott (Laurier Ave, Ottawa) on June 1, 2016. As a first job, he was never given a letter of employment nor a job description. He was told his duties included loading and unloading baggage and assisting guests to and from their rooms. During his employment Mr. Mahamad had stellar performance, receiving regular praises from his managers, supervisors, co-workers and hotel guests. In recognition of his consistent high performance and positive can-do attitude, Mr. Mahamad received regular raises in September 2016 ($14/hr), January 2017 ($15/hr), and again in May 2018 ($16/hr). His employment was terminated abruptly and was told the owner is angry because Mr. Mahamad was 10 minutes late. There were several street closures due to festivities downtown on that Sunday (August 12, 2018) morning and this situation was next to unavoidable. Mr. Mahamad texted his co-worker and told him he is trying to get there and will be there as soon as he possibly can. Mr. Mahamad received no prior warnings and was asked to leave immediately. His supervisor cited the fact that one of the building owners, Mr. Jeff Gillin, had been through the building previously and singled out people such as Naseem for termination. The harsh and dehumanizing manner in which Mr. Mahamad was treated left even his direct supervisor in tears. Two days after his abrupt termination, Mr. Mahamad texted his supervisor and asked for his record of employment and personnel file, however, this request was refused. He was told in this text exchange that his former employer had already begun hiring to replace his position. In October 2016 Mr. Gillin was visiting the building and ordered Mr. Mahamad and one other bell person to remove a gang that was congregating and doing drugs behind the building. Mr. Gillin gave no choice to the two employees. The two employees were clearly not security guards and were not trained to deal with life threatening situations such as the one Mr. Gillin wilfully placed them in. Mr. Mahamad did not complain about the incident, nor did he mention it to anyone else, however, it was widely known amongst the staff what had happened. Mr. Mahamad earned $16/hr for his previous three months of continuous employment, averaging $544 biweekly. Mr. Mahamad is now completely distraught, cannot obtain a record of employment , not sure if he would ever be able to find another job and cannot bring himself to study at Algonquin College. -Is this an appropriate way to terminate someone? -Is it appropriate for an employer such as the Marriott chain to employ a young person and not provide a letter of employment, a written job description, a performance review.......or is the intent to have a loop hole so that you can take these sort of actions with someone who is young and naive. -can an employer refuse to provide a record of employment? -is there anyway to protect young and inexperience workers from this type of abuse so that they do not enter the workforce with weakness, mistrust, fear and constanstantly casting doubt on themselves? Can you please help this youth on what next steps should be? Thanks you.
I work for a company that provides a service for a steel company as a contractor in Northern Ontario. I am in a union, but I feel that my union is not representing me as good as they should. Been employed for 14 yrs, and in those yrs have had back issues. I have been dealing with back issues for over 7yrs. Was on waiting list for a doctor and finally got a doctor to look into my issues. Anyway, long story short....Been dealing with my pain thru pain management and meds, which in the last 4 years has taken their toll. In 2016, had some issues with steel management, voiced my opinion and was written up by my company, but was not dismissed for them and also apologized to steelmakers management for the outspoken issues that I had. January of 2017 was contacted for back surgery and had the surgery done on January 20, 2017. My company took care of me for 6 months on STD, then went on LTD for a year. Did everything I was supposed to do to get back to work with physiotherapy and counseling of the meds I was on and got pain and med free. All was going good, they sent a physiotherapist in to assess my job at the steel mill and allowed him in to do so. That was in April of this year and I passed the physical to go back to work which was scheduled for July 16 2018. My LTD person and my physiotherapist and myself and my boss at my company signed off on a document for me to enter back into the workforce slowly, then back to full time on shift. My first day back was on July 16th this year and at 2pm was told that I was to leave to go home because my company didn't get me a proper gate pass to enter. They said we'll call you tomorrow to let you know when we will get your pass to come back to work. The steel mill management contacted my boss on duty at the time to come to their office. He thought he was getting my gate pass, but ended up with them telling him that I was not allowed on the steel mill property due to previous issues. That was it, my union has tried to contact the steel company to ask if I can come back, due to getting better and had no more attitude now that I was off the meds, but they won't even acknowledge us to set up a meeting for a reason why. Does the steel mill have the right to just say no and that's it? Do I have any rights as a contractor here? I was never told that I cannot come back to work previously before surgery and I apologized to management for my outbreaks and they accepted. Then a year and a half later they decide to try and get rid of me when I did everything to get better to keep my job. Do I have a chance of getting my job back? Can I just get a lawyer and go over my union's head to get my job back? I feel my union doesn't want to rock the boat so no one else gets put out. They feel if they rock the boat to much they may all get kicked out and have another company come in to do our job. I really need some professional advice here, my life is on the line here and I am 8 yrs from pension. I'm 56yrs old and don't think its time for a career change. Do I have a case here for being let go wrongfully? Also have not been paid by my company after using 4 weeks holiday's while waiting for an answer from the steel mill, and now it's been 2 weeks without pay. Sincerely yours.... Rick
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