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i am a correctional officer with the calif dept of corrections & rehabilitation. my drivers license was suspended as result of a dui. it was a hard suspension for one year. i was terminated for failure to meed the minimum qualifications of the position(drivers license). I have fourteen years of service with the dept. and have seen multiple cases of dui over the years. I have even seen the same suspension on two other employees at my prison. one was a supervisor, the other an officer. in my whole career i have never seen anyone fired as a result of a suspended license. the union lawyers could not find a single case of an officer ever being fired soley for a drivers license. there approx. 30,000 employees under the same qual. as me and i'm the only one ever fired for it. Can the dept. selectively enforce this qual. just on me?? if not, then what are my options?
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: California Already Tried: after nine months i got my license back and was reinstated. I want to know if i can have the termination taken off my record and get back wages and my nine months seniority back
I hope this message finds you well, present circumstances excluded. Depending on the length of time from your termination, you may have rights that can be enforced through the California State Personnel Department. I would suggest writing a letter of inquiry under the heading of Public Records Request (they must answer a PPR) to the California Personnel Department inquiring into what appeal rights you may have in view of the decision of your former employer. Ask them to provide to you in writing any and all information about the appeal process and whether you qualify based on the detailed circumstances you give them about your situation.
You may also want to investigate filing an EEOC complaint against your former employer. In this complaint you will have to illustrate discrimination in view of your treatment versus the treatment of others. This discrimination could be based on race, age, sex, religion, etc.
You can contact your local EEOC office by locating them in the phone book. If you are in say, Sacremento, just look up Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and ask for advice/help with filing an EEOC complaint. The EEOC is very employee friendly. You don't need a lawyer to represent you to get things done.
I hope this helps and best wishes.
my termination date was 6-30-09. after my reinstatement date of 3-15-10 my union lawyer advised me to withdraw my appeal due to the fact i got my job back. he said the state per-sonnel board would only look at the fact that i dropped below the minimum qual. and would not look at the fact that the prison has allowed other individuals to work under the same suspension. it's hard to say discrimination as i am latino and one of the individuals allowed to work was latino. i don't know what it was about me but they followed through with the termination. is there any selective enforcement areas to explore with the eeoc or is there a labor board that could deal with this situation?
There are selective enforcement aspects of the EEOC. Primarily what the EEOC does is look at the issue and hand and if they find fault, they issue an opinion that may include a finding that the individual is owed, in your case, back wages. This finding has no real substantive effect except that it gives you the right to sue in federal court if the entity, in this case DOC, does not follow up with their recommendations.
Any labor board, because you are a union member, would have to use the union as a means to enter into it by way of your union membership agreement most likely. This may be an issue that you want to approach your union rep or lawyer about. You don't want to over-step your bounds by circumventing the union in reference to labor boards.
if the eeoc complaint is filed within the one year filing period, can i still sue based on the complaint filing date or do i have to actually file the lawsuit by the one year deadline.
You need to file by the one year deadline.
the lawsuit or just the eeoc complaint?
Both.
Experience: In-House Counsel for State's Largest Agency