I worked at this restaurant for over 4.5 years, 2.5 of which were as their Head Bartender and Mixologist. I was never written up, disciplined or otherwise reprimanded for any kind of misconduct/behaviour contravene to company policy, including the night of September 1st, 2018.

On this particular night, a fellow bartender had decided not to come into work, leaving me alone at the bar to handle upwards of 700 reservations - I had no bar-back, and management didn't really seem to care/had no interest in providing me any support (this was fairly common mind you, and I always took it as a challenge to better my skills, never complaining, even when pulling 16-hour doubles with no break etc.). Right from the get-go I was incredibly overloaded and frustrated.

Anyway, as is fairly common at this establishment, I had a few shots throughout my shift, two of which were done directly because of - and with - my General Manager (another very common practice i.e. management do shots/order drinks during shifts quite regularly - this is not against company policy). Eventually I made it through my shift and bought myself a drink to have while cashing out.

At this time, two more managers came to the bar and asked for wine, one taking an entire bottle for themselves. Again, this is not at all unusual or against company policy - it happens very regularly. When this happens, I am required to cash out these drinks as "spillage", at which point a manager signs for them to denote to head office the reason for the alcohol use. In other words: head-office/HR are well aware of any and all alcohol being consumed on the premises by staff.

After I served the wine, I finished my cash-out - which as always, had no issues or errors - and chatted with my managers while cleaning up the bar. I had another drink while doing so, and another one before I left to go home. I cleaned up the bar with no issue, and my inventory for the night was fine.

When I came into work the following day, everything was fine. Management said nothing to me and I worked through my shift without any issue. I even posted the schedule for the upcoming week, on which I was set to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

However, when I came into work the following Friday, I discovered another bartender already at the bar setting up. This isn't anything out of the ordinary, as sometimes reservations go up and they call in a second bartender to assist.

A few minutes after arriving, I was told by one of the managers (whom had stayed and drank at the bar the previous Friday) that the GM needed to see me. The GM sat me down, was incredibly blunt, albeit still professional and courteous, and handed me a letter of termination, telling me that I was being terminated because of what happened the previous Saturday i.e. drinking at work. He said he would give me a letter of recommendation without question, still considers me a great friend, and that I'm an incredibly valuable and skilled bartender. I didn't really know what to make of it, but I thanked him for the opportunity to work at Copacabana, collected my things and went home.

At this point I need to mention that I was planning on giving my letter of resignation that same very day, and had been planning to do so for a few weeks (I even gave my GM the letter after he fired me, as in it I thanked various members of the company and - as pointless as it may have been - I wanted them to hear it and understand how much I valued my time at the company). I was planning on giving them nearly a month's notice, with a further offer of continuing part-time through October in order to help with training my replacement etc. - all-in-all nearly two months of total notice, as my role at the company was fairly integral and I wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible for everyone.

But I digress.

From my perspective, it would appear that they may have gotten wind of my planning to resign (I had mentioned it to a few other employees), and decided to beat me to it, using the excuse that I was drinking at work as a means of shirking their duty to dispense termination pay. Now, I'll agree that this might seem a tad bit paranoid/conspiratorial, and to be honest, I had my doubts about this initially...that is until I reviewed my ROE while applying for EI.

When I checked my ROE on Service Canada’s website, I was fairly blindsided to discover that even though they had literally handed me an official letter of termination, my employer decided to instead denote that the reason for my leaving the company was that I quit.

A complete and total false-representation of the events to say the least.

So, not only did they fire me for a behaviour that they have condoned - sometimes even encouraged - for years, failing to discipline other employees whom have engaged in the same behaviour (for example: a server was sent home for being too drunk during a private event we were hosting, the only result being some lighthearted jokes from management during her next shift; there are dozens more instances like this), they then proceeded to falsify my ROE, stating that I quit my job, when I in fact was terminated, proof of which I have in the termination letter that they gave me.

I don’t think there is any other conclusion one can draw from this unfortunate series of events, other than that of a company wanting to pay as little compensation to an employee whom gave them 4.5 years of incident-free service.

What are my options?