My employer is accusing me of something that I didn't do?

[matchitisiw]

Okay, so I work for a retail store inside of an airport, and we sell high-end consumer electronics. My employer is accusing me of basically ringing sales under another employee's number one night, about a week and a half ago. The employee left at 7pm, and there are "alternating transactions" between my number and their number over a period of 2-3 hours, after their drawer was "closed". So my employer is basically accusing me of using their number to ring "bad sales" and mine to ring sales that I wanted. One problem: I did not do it.

Over the nearly two years that I've worked there, we have been in contact with the company Tech Help for various issues. If i had to guess a number of times, I'd say probably hundreds. Of course, I don't have paper documentation of all of that, because that's something that one doesn't usually keep on hand as a typical employee.

About a week ago, my regional manager pulled me aside in the presence of another store manager (the Loss Prevention Director of the company put him up to it) and brought up the mystery transactions. I denied them, of course, being not guilty. I acknowledged two accidental returns, back to back. Basically the way our register system works is you first log in once, and then log in with your number again. So if one person logs in on your register to temporarily ring a sale (a lot of register sharing happens there, because one register sometimes freezes/quits working/etc.) and you use your number the second time, it uses the second number for ringing a transaction. But if you do a return, even after typing in your number over the first number entered, the return shows up under the first number. This employee was apparently logged in under my computer, but because I was unaware and using my number, there is no way to know that. So long story short, two returns went under her name. I simply put "RB" for her name, on the receipt. We get dinged by loss prevention if there is no name on it. I simply wrote her initials, for her to sign it later. My regional manager had a cow. Though the Loss Prevention guy doesn't seem to care about it. He cares more about these mystery transactions before all of that (they were actual transactions not related to the returns). So he's going by what the computers say on his end. Well, our computers have had issues for 2 years. Connections would drop many times throughout the day, making sometimes both registers come up over/short with cash afterwards...a system error. I've rang customer's purchases before and a credit card number from an hour before on another transaction showed up on the presence transaction above the current customer's card number - so two card numbers on one receipt, for a single transaction...with different accounts. Another system error. I came in once at 3pm to Declare Tender on my drawer and make sure it was okay, and the system posted at 11am. They have tons of computer issues there. Other stores got new computers - we didn't.

So now I have this Loss Prevention guy breathing down my back trying to fire me for these "transactions" that I didn't make, but he insists that I did. His "evidence" is me standing in front of a register alone on that night (as many other nights for nearly two years - I always close alone). He's saying I made the transactions. On top of that, he got "two employee statements" (probably my store manager and asst. manager) who claimed that I said something about the company "would pay my lawyer fees." I don't even have a freaking lawyer yet. I mentioned getting a lawyer in my former 3-page letter to the Loss Prevention Director days ago. But my info has been floating everywhere. The asst. manager on another concourse said he "saw some of the paperwork" so my info and privacy hasn't been secure. This is all one big mess with rumors flying everywhere, too.

This employer has other issues. I'm seriously about to contact OSHA, because I have had to work a 2pm to 10:15pm shift on some days, alone. I got a lunch break from another store in between, after calling every store in the airport (8 locations). People don't want to come down to relieve others for lunch breaks. Bathroom breaks are hard to come by. You have to close the store. But for the past two weeks, our store's freaking door has been broken, so you have to beat the crap out of it to get the door open to open the gate (which goes across the store) to open again after getting back from the bathroom.

I am in the state of Georgia - lunch breaks are not mandated. But this goes under the "unreasonable" category of OSHA bathroom requirements. Who uses the bathroom only twice in 8+ hours? I've had to shut the store down many times just to go to the bathroom. To my understanding, they fired a lady worker a while ago for closing the store to go to

[sylvester37]

Okay, so I work for a retail store inside of an airport, and we sell high-end consumer electronics. My employer is accusing me of basically ringing sales under another employee's number one night, about a week and a half ago. The employee left at 7pm, and there are "alternating transactions" between my number and their number over a period of 2-3 hours, after their drawer was "closed". So my employer is basically accusing me of using their number to ring "bad sales" and mine to ring sales that I wanted. One problem: I did not do it.

Over the nearly two years that I've worked there, we have been in contact with the company Tech Help for various issues. If i had to guess a number of times, I'd say probably hundreds. Of course, I don't have paper documentation of all of that, because that's something that one doesn't usually keep on hand as a typical employee.

About a week ago, my regional manager pulled me aside in the presence of another store manager (the Loss Prevention Director of the company put him up to it) and brought up the mystery transactions. I denied them, of course, being not guilty. I acknowledged two accidental returns, back to back. Basically the way our register system works is you first log in once, and then log in with your number again. So if one person logs in on your register to temporarily ring a sale (a lot of register sharing happens there, because one register sometimes freezes/quits working/etc.) and you use your number the second time, it uses the second number for ringing a transaction. But if you do a return, even after typing in your number over the first number entered, the return shows up under the first number. This employee was apparently logged in under my computer, but because I was unaware and using my number, there is no way to know that. So long story short, two returns went under her name. I simply put "RB" for her name, on the receipt. We get dinged by loss prevention if there is no name on it. I simply wrote her initials, for her to sign it later. My regional manager had a cow. Though the Loss Prevention guy doesn't seem to care about it. He cares more about these mystery transactions before all of that (they were actual transactions not related to the returns). So he's going by what the computers say on his end. Well, our computers have had issues for 2 years. Connections would drop many times throughout the day, making sometimes both registers come up over/short with cash afterwards...a system error. I've rang customer's purchases before and a credit card number from an hour before on another transaction showed up on the presence transaction above the current customer's card number - so two card numbers on one receipt, for a single transaction...with different accounts. Another system error. I came in once at 3pm to Declare Tender on my drawer and make sure it was okay, and the system posted at 11am. They have tons of computer issues there. Other stores got new computers - we didn't.

So now I have this Loss Prevention guy breathing down my back trying to fire me for these "transactions" that I didn't make, but he insists that I did. His "evidence" is me standing in front of a register alone on that night (as many other nights for nearly two years - I always close alone). He's saying I made the transactions. On top of that, he got "two employee statements" (probably my store manager and asst. manager) who claimed that I said something about the company "would pay my lawyer fees." I don't even have a freaking lawyer yet. I mentioned getting a lawyer in my former 3-page letter to the Loss Prevention Director days ago. But my info has been floating everywhere. The asst. manager on another concourse said he "saw some of the paperwork" so my info and privacy hasn't been secure. This is all one big mess with rumors flying everywhere, too.

This employer has other issues. I'm seriously about to contact OSHA, because I have had to work a 2pm to 10:15pm shift on some days, alone. I got a lunch break from another store in between, after calling every store in the airport (8 locations). People don't want to come down to relieve others for lunch breaks. Bathroom breaks are hard to come by. You have to close the store. But for the past two weeks, our store's freaking door has been broken, so you have to beat the crap out of it to get the door open to open the gate (which goes across the store) to open again after getting back from the bathroom.

I am in the state of Georgia - lunch breaks are not mandated. But this goes under the "unreasonable" category of OSHA bathroom requirements. Who uses the bathroom only twice in 8+ hours? I've had to shut the store down many times just to go to the bathroom. To my understanding, they fired a lady worker a while ago for closing the store to go to

How is should work, when the one employee clocks out for the day, their number should be useless. It doesn't sound like your company employs that use. OSHA wouldn't get involved in your case unless you get seriously injured. The Labor department though might be willing to get involved though. Just be sure to document your case, if you can.

[fyfe]

Threatening to contact the lawyer (or saying that you did contact a lawyer) was a mistake. Contacting a lawyer might not be, depending on how likely you think it is that you are going to get fired.

Your employer's reaction indicates to me that there's missing inventory. You need to explain the whole situation to the Loss Prevention Director, and figure this thing out. Approaching him in person is best, but doing so in a written letter (not an e-mail) works too. Stay as calm as you can, and explain the situation exactly as you see it. Write down your issues in point form if you need to, and be clear, concise and genuine. You might not have anything to do with the problem, but you're caught up in it whether you like it or not. Your employer doesn't necessarily want you gone; he probably just wants the problem solved. If getting rid of you clearly won't solve the problem, it won't make sense to do so.

If you get fired, or you think that it's very likely, contact a lawyer. You can probably get free legal advice from your local legal clinic. It's not as good as retaining an employment lawyer, but it's better than nothing. I'm not aware of Georgia law (I'm Canadian), but if your employer can't prove, on a balance of probabilities, that you breached your obligations or acted inappropriately, you might have a case for wrongful dismissal in common law. Your local labor board (if you have one) might also be able to deal with the matter if the **** hits the fan.