Q: My employer had another employee forge my contract when I refused to sign & did not agree to a paycut. What can I do?
My job requires two types of paperwork to be completed, Startwork & Deal Memo. My employer wanted to change my pay rate weeks after starting work. I refused and was threatened w my job. A co-worker let me know she was threatened w her job and forced to forge my paperwork. She gave me copies of the original as well as the forged paperwork. I am also in a Union and my rate, a scale union rate. My immediate supervisor advised me against taking any action. I ended up giving my notice and training two people to replace me. Now approx. 5 years have passed. Is it too late for me to pursue a case?
A:
Yes, sitting on your rights for 5 years will preclude you from bringing any kind of legal claim that you might have had available to you. However, it sounds to me like this was an issue you needed to raise with your union.
Good luck to you.
A:
Rip Van Winkle had an excuse to sleep on his rights, what is yours? Your union job is governed by an agreement between the union and the employer usually called a CBA or MOU. This sets out the terms for you to file a grievance with the union if you believe that you were being treated unfairly under the agreement by your employer. If the union does nothing for you, there is an option for you to file against both the union and the employer, in Federal Court, called a DFR suit. The Federal statute of Limitations for such an action used to be 180 days, and I have not heard that it changed, but I have not looked into it for about 30 years. Federal Statutes of limitation are usually shorter than State ones, so I would believe that this is probably unchanged. In any event, IMO it is very unlikely the statute changed to be beyond 5 years. This is ancient history, perhaps you need a hobby so you will stop thinking about what you could have done a long time ago, and there is no guarantee you would have prevailed.
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