If a employer makes a unfair and unresonable policy that cuses you to get fired can you sue?

Question

The gas station I work for recently took us off of "pre-pay". This has caused a lot of drive-offs. Today they issued a new policy stating that if an employee has a drive-off, it cannot be rang up as a drive-off, but must be rung up as a cash sale, and shown as a cash shortage, and the employee must be terminated for cash shortage. I am the manager at this location, and was told by my District manager, that we cannot fire the cashier for drive-offs, but we can for cash shortages. Not having a drive-off is an impossible task, and it is an unfair policy. What legal action can we take to prevent this from happening, or if it has happened what action can we take? Is this considered a Hostile Work Environment. The state is Alabama.

Answer 1

This new policy is clearly flawed.  If drive-offs are now rung up as a cash sale and employees can be fired for cash shortages, it makes no sense.  

This policy needs to be argued again.  Is there a corporate office that's over the district office that would make this decision?  

The only reason I see them doing something like this is for tax purposes.  Perhaps it's easier to calculate a cash shortage than to tabulate drive-offs at the end of tax season--it's a headache for them, I'd bet.  However, this doesn't help the employees at all--it sounds like it makes it worse for everyone.  

If they are unwilling to change policy, since you're the manager, I'd have my employees still keep tabs on which is a drive off and which isn't.  Perhaps they can still ring it up as a cash sale but then keep a separate record (in some type of record book) if the particular sale was a drive-off or not.  (They could list the time, date of occurance, amount, etc.)  That way, if someone is in danger of losing their job over this new policy, there is, at least, another record that states that that particular instance was in fact not an employee error (not a cash shortage on their part), but was, in fact, a drive-off.  

They can't fire someone over this, right?  There is no distinction between a drive-off and a cash shortage anymore.  

I would definitely try to get this policy changed to protect my employees.  But, if district won't change, I would recommend keeping a separate record to protect their butts, for sure.  Good luck with everything.

Answer 2

Excellent advice from travelnut!!!!!