Q: Hi, I got fired for introducing a six pack of beers into the restaurant that I worked, I drank two and the owner

A: You may have a meritorious claim for unpaid meal and rest periods and for the failure to pay overtime. It is also possible you will have some claim for the sick pay issue. Of course, far more would need to be known about your situation to know for sure. As to the termination, you are likely not going to have a meritorious legal claim.

Assuming you were a non-exempt employee, your employer was required to provide you with a reasonable opportunity to take a 10-minute uninterrupted and duty free rest period on the clock for every 4 hours you worked, and a 30-minute uninterrupted and duty free meal period off the clock whenever you worked more than 5 hours in a shift. If you were not give the reasonable opportunity to take at least one rest period in a shift, you would be entitled to one hour of pay as a wage penalty. You would be entitled to another one hour of pay for each day you were denied a proper meal period.

Regarding overtime, you would have been entitled to be paid time-and-a-half overtime any time you worked more than 8 hours in a workday, or more than 40 hours in a workweek, or for the first 8 hours of the seventh consecutive day of a workweek. You would have been entitled to double time overtime if you worked more than 12 hours in a workday, or after the first 8 hours of the seventh consecutive working day of the workweek.

As to sick pay, the right to paid sick leave only started a couple of years ago, but if you were denied sick pay since that new law was enacted and you had accrued sick pay under that law, you would be entitled to now recover that pay that should have been paid to you.

As to the termination, you are considered to be an at will employee unless you had an agreement to the contrary with your employer. That means you can be terminated at any time and for any reason or even no reason at all. You are not entitled to any warnings or notice that what you did was disfavored by the boss. There does not seem to be any unlawful motive in terminating you for bringing alcohol into the restaurant.

It would be wise for you to locate and consult with an employment law attorney to talk about your rights and your options. Most attorneys will give you a free or low cost consultation and then handle the case for you on a contingency fee basis, meaning you do not have to pay for the attorney unless and until there is a recovery for you.

Good luck to you.