Was I wrongfully fired?

[ambaa07]

I was just fired from my restaurant job. I went to another one of the owner's establishments and upon entering said establishment, the front door had a sign that said 21 and up only and had a bouncer checking ids. So I sat at the bar and had some drinks when another employee from where I worked at walked in to hangout with us. I offered her a drink which she did not drink. Well, apparently this girl was underage and they fired us both for it but did not fire the bouncer for not checking her i.d. or the manager that was on duty and manager obviously knew she was underage and still let her in and let her sit at the bar. How was i to know she wasn't of age, if they allowed her in?

 

[Just Blue]

I was just fired from my restaurant job. I went to another one of the owner's establishments and upon entering said establishment, the front door had a sign that said 21 and up only and had a bouncer checking ids. So I sat at the bar and had some drinks when another employee from where I worked at walked in to hangout with us. I offered her a drink which she did not drink. Well, apparently this girl was underage and they fired us both for it but did not fire the bouncer for not checking her i.d. or the manager that was on duty and manager obviously knew she was underage and still let her in and let her sit at the bar. How was i to know she wasn't of age, if they allowed her in?

U.S. Law Only.

 

[FlyingRon]

We can only guess where you are, but in all the states I've worked in, it is incumbent on the server (bartender, waiter) to verify the person they are serving is old enough. You can not defer it to the bouncer.

Anyhow, they're pretty much free in 49 states to fire you for this even if it was 100% the bouncer's fault and they didn't fire you.

 

[Chyvan]

I was just fired from my restaurant job.

File for unemployment.

 

[Taxing Matters]

U.S. Law Only.

I’m curious as to why you apparently think the OP is not in the U.S. Nothing about the post clearly suggests that the OP is elsewhere.

 

[cbg]

No, you were not wrongfully fired. There is nothing that even suggests that there was any law violated by firing you. It may or may not have been fair; it may or may not have been an overreaction; but it was not illegal.

 

[Zigner]

I’m curious as to why you apparently think the OP is not in the U.S. Nothing about the post clearly suggests that the OP is elsewhere.

It's a common way (on this forum) of pointing out that poster either failed to answer the question of what state they are in, or simply deleted the question entirely.

 

[LdiJ]

We can only guess where you are, but in all the states I've worked in, it is incumbent on the server (bartender, waiter) to verify the person they are serving is old enough. You can not defer it to the bouncer.

Anyhow, they're pretty much free in 49 states to fire you for this even if it was 100% the bouncer's fault and they didn't fire you.

He wasn't a server in that establishment. He was a customer. He was a customer who offered another customer a drink. While the firing wasn't illegal, I do think it was unfair. How was he to know that the girl was under 21?

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

An employee of a business shouldn't be buying drinks for minors at the business no matter if they are on duty or not. It is a crime.

 

[quincy]

He wasn't a server in that establishment. He was a customer. He was a customer who offered another customer a drink. While the firing wasn't illegal, I do think it was unfair. How was he to know that the girl was under 21?

He could always have asked his coworker her age before offering her a drink - but I agree the assumption that she was old enough to be sitting at the bar and drinking alcohol was a reasonable one for ambaa07 to make.

That said, and while there could be more to this story than has been disclosed, there appears to be no wrongful termination.

 

[xylene]

I'm not even seeing what was unfair.

 

[quincy]

I'm not even seeing what was unfair.

I actually see nothing unfair about the firing, either.

 

[LdiJ]

An employee of a business shouldn't be buying drinks for minors at the business no matter if they are on duty or not. It is a crime.

He wasn't an employee of that business. He was an employee of a different business owned by the same person.

 

[LdiJ]

I actually see nothing unfair about the firing, either.

Example:

I work at a McDonalds. I get off work and go down the street to a local micro brewery to have a couple of drinks before I go home. I get carded by the bouncer when I go into the brewery. It also just so happens that the LLC who owns the McDonald's I work at also owns the micro brewery.

Another employee of McDonalds comes in. I assume she was carded by the bouncer, just like I was, and I offer to by her a drink but she never drinks it. A representative of the LLC finds out that she was in there (under age) and that I bought her a drink, and fires both of us from our jobs at McDonalds.

I think that is unfair. I can see firing the girl since she knew she wasn't 21. I can also see firing whoever was responsible to check ID's since they obviously did not check hers.

I do think it was unfair to fair the OP. He had no way of knowing she was underage nor did he have any duty whatsoever to inquire about her age or ID her. It wasn't illegal by any means but in my humble opinion, it was unfair.

 

[quincy]

He wasn't an employee of that business. He was an employee of a different business owned by the same person.

That makes no difference.

As an employee, he represents his employer's business at his workplace and also away from the workplace.

People can get fired from their jobs over what they post on social media sites or for smoking cigarettes on their own time. Employees can harm the reputations of their employers by what they do off-the-clock.

The best way to ensure you are not buying alcohol for a minor is to ask for an age.

Ambaa07, what is the name of your state?