A woman alleging that her employment at a security firm in Kingston was wrongfully terminated because she refused to sleep with the boss says that she has been finding it difficult to collect her wages from the company.
Marcia Johnson* told THE WEEKEND STAR that she was trained for three weeks and then placed on a location to work for another three weeks. "Because I want to work and yuh know job hard fi get, so mi tek it," she remarked.
She reasoned that, "Is cause mi nuh wah deh wid him; him call mi phone and all a ask what's the latest time him can call mi. Him all a call mi pan private number and 'cause mi nuh answer, him say mi nah answer management call."
services terminated
She recalls that it was when she returned from her grandfather's funeral that she received a call saying that her services were being terminated.
"Unfortunately, my grandfather died and I had to go to the funeral. When mi go look pan di schedule there was a Sunday included. When mi ask bout it, the super-visor say the chief say mi can go. On the Monday I got a call that I got fired. In the afternoon, I got another call that I mus bring in my uniform," she said.
When contacted, the owner of the security firm told THE WEEKEND STAR that all employees are required to go through 14 active days training which is to be paid for by the employee. He added that Johnson did not pay for her training and as a result, an agreement was reached that the money would be deducted from her salary.
He explained: "She was assigned to a location and the clients were not satisfied with her services because of her boisterous behaviour."
Further he said, "We requested a death certificate because she wanted to go to her grandfather's funeral. It is the company's policy she did not provide one. She was called to a meeting and she was extremely rude in the meeting, telling me that I sleep with all my staff, so we decided then to terminate her services."
documents
But Johnson said that she had to get assistance from the police in receiving her documents and a termination letter from the company. "Him charging us $5,000 to train us, him hold on to mi passport and TRN and the police had to order him to return the passport," she stated.
On the other hand, the firm's owner said, "When they come if they don't have the money to pay, they are required to leave something as security and she chose to leave those (documents)."
When questioned as to why she was not compensated for being placed on the location he said, "She was given a letter that she would be paid on the 29th (April) bearing in mind she brought in all her equipment, which she didn't. When she finally brought back all her equipment, pay was already processed and the accountant went off on maternity leave."
Since then, Johnson says she has lodged a complaint with the Ministry of Labour but was advised that she should proceed to take out a civil suit in the matter.
When we spoke to Michael Kennedy, director of pay and condition at the Ministry of Labour yesterday, he said, "I can't confirm if she lodged a complaint but I can confirm that's the normal route, she would have to go to the civil court."
