What can I do about the mental harassment, safety violations and intentional sabatage I endured at my previous employeer?
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What can I do about the mental harassment, safety violations and intentional sabatage I endured at my previous employeer?
I walked away from my position of 4 years this week because my treatment had grown to the point I could no longer take the abuse. Repeatedly I brought up safety concerns like unsafe fork lift operations, faulty equipment causing burns, have waited months for confined space training, asked for resolution with problem areas beyond my allowed decisions, had management continually sabotage my production, was screamed at, swore at, threatened, punished for bringing up issues. and was told that,
Asked on December 2, 2016 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Unless there was some form of legally actionable discrimination involved in your treatment or it breached the terms of an employment contract or union agreement, your employer's actions were perfectly permissable. The fact is that in an "at will" work relationship, a company can set the conditions of the workplace much as it sees fit. This means that absent the above 2 exceptions, employees need not be treated in a professional manner and can receive lesser treatment than their co-workers.
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
There is probably nothing you can do, unless you were terminated in violation of a written employment contract or the employer otherwise violated a written employment contract. (If they did, you could sue them for breach of contract.)
First, there is no right to be treated well at work: you may be treated badly by your coworkers or supervisors. There is no legal recourse for being bullied at work.
Second, without a contract, you are an employee at will and have basically no rights in or too your job and could be terminated, or otherwise made to leave (e.g. placed in an unpleasant situation) at will.
Third, you write that you voluntarily left: having voluntarily left, the law see your separation from employment as having been your choice, and not something you can hold your employer accountable for.
The short answer is: your workplace can be awful, and while you certainly have the choice to leave it, that is generally your only choice: whether to endure it or leave. There is no compenation for an awful workplace.
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