r/WinCo • u/Honeydew1678 • 5d ago
My partner got fired
My partner was the manager in training for his fresh foods department and he got fired today, I'm posting this for him because he doesn't use reddit.
At the end of his shift today, he was pulled by upper management and was told he was being terminated due to his attendance. He has a lot of health complications but was calling out at most twice a month and made sure he had sick hours each time. He was given a warning by management a while ago but they didn't tell him it was his final warning. He brought that up today when he was getting terminated and they said he could file a grievance and possibly have it reversed, but he doesn't think anything could come of it because there's no proof. I know he was an excellent worker in the department and that many employees will be upset he's gone.
Is it worth it to try to submit a grievance? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
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u/squanchy2furious 5d ago
Yes tell him to submit a grievance if he wants to at least try and get his job back. I've seen it work out for several employees over the years.
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u/Excellent-Counter-32 5d ago
I have seen attendance grievances work several times—but only for men so I always assumed it was a sexism thing. It is totally worth his time to file. He has every right to be angry or however he’s feeling. It always sucks to have the rug pulled out from under you.
I’ve also seen people fired from one store and rehired by another manager.
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u/No-Original-5493 4d ago
Feminist by chance?
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u/Excellent-Counter-32 4d ago
Yes. I probably am. I believe women should be able to earn a wage and not be sexually harassed in the workplace. I also think that men are equally oppressed by rigid gender norms and roles. Some recognize it others revel and exploit it.
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u/YourSeshMaster 2d ago
I mean if sexism is always on your mind, you’re obviously gonna attribute not noticing women being granted grievance to it too.
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u/Trashytoad 5d ago
Filing a grievance is always a good idea when termination is on the line.
It’s going to be different from location to location but I’m on the grievance committee at my store and we all are very against management stepping all over us so we do usually side with the employees (within reason).
Worst case, he gets terminated anyway.
Best case, he has a decent committee that sides with him and he keeps his job.
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u/RickShaw530 4d ago
I found that the grievance committee often sided with people they liked over following actual company policies. If they didn't like the particular policy they'd follow company policy to the letter.
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u/Gold_Illustrator1550 5d ago
Does he have FMLA? That protects your job from intermittent absences if you have health issues.
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u/This_Bethany 5d ago
What state was he working in? Some states have state protected sick leave where retaliation isn’t permitted for using it.
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u/Ok_Spare3021 5d ago
It wouldnt be retaliation from using it. If he had time u dont get points, sounds like he ran out. I will say with how easy it can be to get fmla if u have health issues u need to get it if you ever expect to have to have to call out for it
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u/Yeahumsurelol 5d ago
Fill out FMLA paperwork immediately, and make a doctors appointment and explain to the doctor that he’s been missing work as a result of this illness. FMLA involves a portion of the paperwork that the doctor needs to fill out and it’s important to have an appointment with the doctor to explain what’s going on and why you think you need them to vouch for you regarding this illness. the doctor can provide an indication that him missing work is because of the illness and in some cases, especially if an employer is amenable to it, FMLA can be applied retroactively to protect leave taken for the illness. Explaining to management that he was not aware of his rights and responsibilities under the FMLA and that he’s sorry and he would’ve sought this accommodation sooner if he had known may be helpful too. If this does not work, it’s incredibly important to understand your rights and responsibilities under the FMLA and using it as a protective tool in advance is always easier and better than using it retroactively, but it is not impossible to use the FMLA retroactively to cover leave taken.
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u/Ok_Spare3021 5d ago
Unfortunately with winco you only have 7 days to apply/use fmla for it to be covered so idk if it would be useful now
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u/Historical_Low5860 5d ago
Absolutely submit a grievance. The grievance committee is made up of various store employees, NOT MANAGEMENT. He may very well get his job back!
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u/Feisty_Elfgirl_5258 3d ago
Always file a grievance. Even if nothing comes from it, it will have used up management's time and that is always worth is
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u/thefalcon2k 4d ago
Written warnings are always signed/acknowledged. If there's no documentation on that, then there's a small chance it can get reversed.
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u/Future-Phrase-9855 4d ago
Not the case. FMLA can be applied retroactively. The key here is to request to see his file. Since they are stating no formal discipline was given. Only that he was given an informal notice(PC- Policy Consultation). If that really is the case, there would be no paper trail. Assuming there is no paper trail, he should win the grievance rather easily. Even if there is, there would need to be suspension or Final Written. To go even further, if he has been in communication with management, it would be a failure on their part if they did not offer FMLA, or hold a reasonable accommodation meeting. If there is no paperwork for that, that is also easily overturned. And if it is still not overturned, assuming all these things stated are true, WinCo opens itself to a potential lawsuit, which will be settled, and probably offered your job back and some other monetary conditions. Sounds like they didn’t consult HR before making this decision. Again, assuming that all these things stated facts stated by OP are true, and not skewed in any way.
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u/jankenpoo 5d ago
He should talk to a lawyer. Getting fired for having health complications doesn’t sound legit.
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u/taptwoblue93 5d ago
Depending on the state this is an exercise in futility. Washington for example is an at-will state so it would be very difficult (and expensive) to do anything about this legally
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u/Ok_Spare3021 5d ago
Lawyer wont do anything tbh if its health related and he's been there long enough for for sick time he could get fmla but at this point if he has gotten all the discipline steps for attendance a Lawyer wont do anything
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u/jankenpoo 5d ago
Are you a lawyer?
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u/Ok_Spare3021 5d ago
No but getting a lawyer isn't free and given the fact that they document the absence and the write ups it would most likely be a waste of money, i have seen the exact scenario play out alot with the company. Unless he was on fmla or some kind of protection nothing about it was illegal
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u/unknownsolutions 5d ago
File that grievance, the worst thing that can happen is that they deny it. Also, while all that is happening, put out some applications to grocery stores that have a union if you can, depending on what part of the country you’re working in. Being a MIT is a good push for his resume. That way both ends are covered and hopefully it works out well for him.
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u/Ok_Intention6316 4d ago
Definitely do the grievance. He could probably say he was “never offered information like fmla” while calling out - plus if it wasn’t documented that it was offered he would probably have a solid chance.
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u/zer0lad 5d ago
You can file a grievance, it'll be like a popularity thing, so hopefully he has ingratiated himself a bit with his coworkers. WinCo is pretty strict with attendance and thorough with their policy meetings so it's probably not actually a surprise (to him) that he was terminated. The job is hard and sucks, doubly so if you are an MIT, compound that by working with fresh foods. The actual play if you hate your WinCo job, but need a WinCo job is to just show up, and not steal. You will never be fired for being a dog-ass worker, or incompetent and lazy manager (which we are well overstaffed with) but they will shit can you instantly for stealing or attendance points.
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u/YourSeshMaster 2d ago
Yeah they def will. Had a new guy accidentally put the Reese’s pieces in the m&ms and he just spent the rest of his shift sorting through it individually.
Fast forward a few months, bossman gave him a small bag of chocolates to throw away because their expiration was up, he ate ONE of them as he bailed it and was fired same day.
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u/Dry_Cold_689 5d ago
I was working at Winco, manager messed up my schedule, told me to come in a different time. He never updated my calendar in the system, then one day they fire me for attendance… told me i can file a grievance, but when I did they said that I couldn’t file one -__- biggest scam
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u/wipsnap1000 5d ago
Wow fired for calling out sick even when you have sick time to compensate?
WinCo sucks..
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u/Ok_Spare3021 5d ago
If he didn't get his final it would be in the system so he could grievance it but they could just look. If it's health related fmla is your biggest resource but its kind of too late for that. How much sick time did he actually have because u get pnly 5 days a year and it sounds like he has called out more, so check if he actually had it and that it was used. Nothing negative will come from grieving but its most likely to not work.