lost mouth from kroger

A LOST MONTH ----KARL AND KROGER #581
More than anything else, I am a parent. This was a blog post I had hoped I would not have to write. It is a long one. I kept my mouth shut and stayed out of this to let those in charge fix things. Even though I gave them a month, they failed my son totally on every level. Sandi and I are furious at what has happened. Enough is enough!





As some of you know, our special needs son, Karl, works for KROGER here in Plano. He has more than six years with the company starting as a bagger working part-time after school years ago. Karl has supervised departments, been the fastest checker in the stores he has worked at while being one of the fastest in the state and for the region, and was the youngest elected Union Steward in the history of KROGER nationwide among numerous other accomplishments all well documented. A year ago when the KROGER across the street closed, Karl, the Assistant Bakery Manager, was forced to transfer to KROGER #581 at 2925 Custer Road, Plano Texas 75093 (972-612-3280).

From day one in that store his working life became a nightmare. Within days he was no longer the Assistant Bakery Manager and was back working as a bagger though he retained his Assistant Bakery Manager pay. It was clear that the store manager Bill Latham had a personal problem with our son and was hoping Karl would quit since he had no grounds to fire him. Karl wasn’t going to throw away a career with KROGER as he plans on working there for life and moving on up with the company. After being harassed and victimized numerous times by the store manager and others, each case fully documented, he made repeated attempts to transfer as with so many years in the company and numerous letters of praise from customers he didn’t want to throw all that away.

Events continued to worsen and came to a major situation on October 18, 2011 when he was suspended without pay and told he would be terminated in a couple of days because of a claim of “sexual harassment.” What was the crime? Documenting by long distance photograph an employee who was once again working off the clock and out of uniform. That was it!

Obviously, that action WAS NOT sexual harassment, it was NOT even harassment. Not only was he cleared the next day of that allegation by the Union it was also blatantly obvious to all that it was nothing. The Union informed store management that the charge was false, that the employee had made a false allegation, and that Karl should be returned to work immediately. Yet, while those involved who lied and deliberately trashed his reputation with false allegations and malicious smears are somehow still working and getting paid, Karl is home on unpaid leave and has no idea when he will finally be allowed to return to work.

While the month off so far has helped him heal a couple of nagging injuries he sustained on the job and work on his business at http://www.amazon.com/shops/thundercatsnyy this situation in all likelihood has caused irreparable harm to his long term career with KROGER. Staff from Social Security, because he is disabled and KROGER gets a tax credit for his employment, as well as staff from the Texas Workforce Commission are all now investigating his situation. At this point, those government agencies have also cleared Karl of all charges and allegations of wrongdoing and are investigating his employment status and why he is not back at work since he did nothing wrong. In addition to investigating why he is not back at work, they are also investigating what actions the agencies can take against those involved to hold them accountable at a criminal as well as civil level.

Since there is a record of other disabled individuals being treated improperly in terms of scheduling, pay, work status and other issues, this situation has far greater ramifications to those involved than just Karl. According to Kroger corporate and verified by all involved----Karl still has a job. The store manager, Bill Latham, is just blatantly refusing to allow Karl to return to work. The District Manager is refusing to allow Karl to transfer to another store and hopefully a better working environment.

I guess they think he will go quietly away. That won’t happen. Period.

Sexual harassment is serious and it does happen. However, there are also cases, such as this one, where no such thing ever happened. Those involved with making up lies and harassing my son resulting in yet more emotional stress and pain and suffering as well as additional economic hardship for our family should be punished and punished severely. Not only did those in charge fail to properly investigate the claims before they shoved Karl out the door for the sin of standing up to the store manager and nothing more, now that they ALL know the claims and allegations were false, they should have long ago had Karl back to work. The fact that they have not addressed the situation is inexcusable and unacceptable.

At this point, since no one involved seems to really be doing anything, I suspect an EEOC complaint and hiring an attorney will be next on the agenda. It isn’t something Karl really wants to do and something Sandi and I as his parents, don’t want to do. God knows, we have more than enough to deal with without having to deal with this too.

It was bad enough when the store manager blatantly discriminated against Karl because he was special needs and the man just didn’t like him. This is far worse than what was tolerated before by Karl and us knowing the store manager’s days with Kroger were supposedly numbered. Karl was repeatedly told after every incident dating back a year now to be patient as this store manager was on the way out according to the union, the District Manager, the HR Manager and others. He was repeatedly told to “hang on” or “be patient” and other comments along those lines while those in charge acknowledged there were huge problems in KROGER #581 and assigned various parties to come in and document those issues.

For those who would like to read all the nitty gritty details of what happened that fateful Tuesday a month ago, I have put below the statement that I had to write for Karl on this matter. Not only has the statement been fully verified by the Union (they requested a written statement) it has also been verified in full by Social Security and Texas Workforce. I’m sure other parties will be able to verify it in full as well during additional actions going forward.

I said before that Karl is special needs. He is, as among other issues, he reads and writes on a third grade level. As such I have to write everything for him whether it be this, or his letters to Social Security and the Texas Workforce commission on this matter, or other parties that will be contacted.

At the same time, Karl has mad skills at work and most recognize that. You can’t be worthless and run departments that had sales increases every week you were in charge. You can’t be worthless and have your department get a perfect score from the Health Department. You can’t be worthless and generate letters from customers about how great you are. You can’t be worthless and be the number one checker in your store, in your state or the top five in the region every single week you checked. Even when he wasn’t being used properly at KROGER #581, where the manager never once recognized his abilities or talents, he still did his job day in and day out and was constantly complimented orally and in writing by customers.

He also has the amazing ability to rip apart any electronic or mechanical item without any plans or blueprints and fix it within an hour or two and have it run better than it ever did. He has his own business at http://www.amazon.com/shops/thundercatsnyy where he makes a little money most months. He also is the go to guy for security and computer needs among an increasing group of friends and clients.

Karl knows what he is doing and is damn good at his job--no matter what the job is or where it is at. Too bad some at KROGER don’t seem to get that--yet.

Kevin---one very angry dad


Karl’s Statement for October 18, 2011


During the last several weeks, KROGER has become an increasingly hostile working environment due to harassment by store manager Bill Latham, Jessica and Joannie. This is due to my documenting repeated off the clock working by both Jessica and Joannie and repeated dress code violations. As a result they retaliated against me and harassed me during working hours and lied to Bill Latham about my job performance and actions. They also circulated a petition during the hours they worked while I was on vacation claiming various infractions on my part and intimidated several of my fellow employees to sign their paperwork. Numerous staff members informed me of this issue while I was on vacation. I was also informed this was happening by at least ten different customers when I came back from vacation with several of them stating they would call corporate and complain. I saw the paperwork myself on more than one occasion as well as the five signatures it contained.

Harassment by Bill Latham significantly escalated when I returned to work October 11, 2011 when I was informed I could no longer do go backs, get carts, or do any activity other than to stand directly at the end of the conveyor belt to bag for customers. I was informed I could not do any carry out. Of course, this had a direct negative impact on customer satisfaction due to my inability to service customer needs properly as well as being constantly short handed due to poor scheduling and failure to use staff correctly.

It should be noted that Bill Latham claimed to have no knowledge of the Joannie/Jessica petition despite my, as well as several other people, bringing it to his attention. He also took no action to address it with the individuals involved as he should have. I kept the Union updated daily as to what was happening on this and how he was failing to address the fact while Joannie and Jessica continued to waste working time while circulating the store desperately trying to find somebody else who would sign their garbage. Instead, he watched me like a hawk in person as well as by camera.

And yet, on more than one occasion, the most egregious being while he stood next to me bagging, he missed a shoplifter who stole quite a number of items from the drug/gm area and walked right by him. Even when informed, Bill Latham failed to follow the customer outside the store and get his license plate as he had expected me to do previous times or take any action at all.

Things further escalated on Saturday October 15th when Bill Latham screamed at me multiple times on the sales floor, informed me that I could only be in the break room during breaks, that I could not use my cell phone while on break, and finally loudly demanded to talk to me while I was checking out thirty minutes after my shift. My disabled father witnessed this as did numerous employees, customers, and the security cameras. When I told him I was off the clock he loudly threatened to talk to me on Monday when I returned to work.

Monday, October 17, as promised brought another lecture and yet more harassment. When the store was finally out of carts, he sent out at 12 noon to get them. In front of Trevor and Mary he told me, among other things, that I was to stay out there “until the lot was cleared.” Since it is only possible to have the lot cleared when the store is closed, that resulted in my having to be out there until 3 when shift ended. While I was fine with being outside since it was only 90, unlike other days during the summer months when I was told to stay outside all day while temps topped out at 100 and greater, it remains my understanding that longer than thirty minutes is a clear and obvious violation of KROGER policies and procedures regarding employee safety. I reported this incident as well as the other things that happened that day to the Union further documenting the hostile working environment in that store.

Tuesday morning it was clear something was up as KROGER security, HR, and other personnel started arriving to the store. Around 11 am after not being allowed to do most of what I should have been doing for yet another day, Bill Latham came to me and said he had somebody he wanted me to talk to. I went to his office and was ambushed by a number of people including a, Charlie Tyner, who had no business cards, claiming to be KROGER security, some other guy who did not identify himself, Latham, and Jessica, with the HR guy sitting across the hall with the door open. Charlie Tyner said Jessica was representing the Union since she was a Union member.

He made no mention at this point that I was being written up or that he was taking any action. All he said was that he wanted to talk to me and get some information. Clearly he lied.

I was informed that Joannie had filed a sexual harassment complaint for my taking pictures of her on numerous dates to document that she was working off the clock and/or out of uniform. Supposedly this was “harassment” though as employees we have no expectation of privacy on company property and time. I was told this was an issue. I made it clear it happened because of her actions, and because Bill Latham had denied it was happening not only to me but to Bill Breetze and others, and that I had been doing such activities for nearly my entire history with KROGER. In the past I was repeatedly thanked by Bill Breetze and/or corporate for such activities and never once had anyone claimed it was “harassment” or any violation of any KROGER policy or procedure.

Instead of focusing on the fact that the store has over $2100 missing from just the week I was on vacation not to mention the other cash shortages before and since, Charlie Tyner seemed far more interested in finding out how I was taking pictures, what I was doing with the pictures, what my private business was, whether I was recording meetings and write-ups, how I was doing things, etc. In between referring to previous write-ups (all of which were found to be unfounded and supposed to have been removed from my file), he questioned me as to why I was documenting the fact that Bill Latham repeatedly lied about anything and everything in that store. Since there has been a pattern of Bill Latham and Shawn C. as well as Joannie/Jessica making up lies about me and trying to create drama to get me fired, I have been fully documenting things so that Bill Breetze and others are aware of the situation long before these matters wind up in the media and in court.

We then moved after about an hour of fruitless discussion where Mr. Tyner claimed he didn’t know anything about missing money despite the fact corporate had called more than once and an audit is currently again underway, or what others did with their cellphones on the clock, etc. to write me up. I again requested union representation and was told that Jessica was my representative. That was not only clearly wrong, it showed how slanted the process was because I took action against her in store 423 for various violations involving dress code, job performance, attitude, circulating petitions against staff, documented lying about staff members, lies to customers, etc. that resulted in clear and convincing evidence against her. Her case was so bad she was disciplined several times and eventually demoted and transferred to one store after another committing the same infractions before finally ending up here. I noted this and my objections were over ruled and ignored.

Mr. Tyner, as well as his unidentified associate that acted like his boss, repeatedly pressured me to resign effective immediately. If I would just quit today, “it would all go away” and I could have my vacation pay and “a little bit more.” I made it clear to one and all that not only was I not signing their paperwork, I was not quitting at all. No matter how many times, and it was at least a dozen that they asked me to quit, I told them each and every time that was not happening. I was not and would not quit my job. They could either fire me now and I would start the lawsuit process or they could wait a couple of days and then fire me and I would file my lawsuit with or without the help of the Union.

Eventually, around 12:15 I was told I was suspended without pay, most likely to be terminated as soon as his “investigation” was complete, and that while I could come in the store as a customer, I could not talk about my situation with any employee as for now I was still a member of KROGER. Mr. Tyner repeatedly urged me to quit today and make it all easy on everyone. He also repeatedly said that if I was allowed back I would not be allowed to take pictures or make any recordings. His focus seemed solely in preventing me from documenting violations of company policies and procedures and not in addressing the fact that it was because of those issues, which Bill Latham has repeatedly lied to me and others about, that I had to prove I was not lying by documenting the various situations.

Considering the long history of problems I have endured since I transferred to #581 last November, the number of grievances I have had to file regarding working conditions, the number of written statements such as this one, the verbal abuse by Bill Latham including calling me on more than once occasion “a fucking retarded idiot,” scheduling issues, missing pay, etc. it is clear it simply is not possible for me to work in that store anymore. As I noted in my statement of June 25, 2011, because Bill Latham harasses me on various issues, while ignoring the same things with other folks, constantly does nothing about cash office shortages that always happen when Shawn C. is to be off the next day, allowed Joannie to be out of uniform and work of the clock, allowed the same with Jessica, etc. I have had to document everything the last several months in order to protect myself and my job with KROGER.

Bill Latham, Carol Swindel and Bill Breetze are all fully aware that Bill Latham has practiced discrimination and persecution against me for whatever reason and continually created a hostile working environment for me and several other staff members. I have repeatedly asked to be transferred to another store because of his actions and the atmosphere he has created. Those requests have been denied.

Every time he tried to create a situation and write me up or caused an issue, it has been dismissed and he has been warned to stop his misbehavior. I have been repeatedly told by various upper level KROGER officials that Bill Latham will be retiring in November and just to be patient and wait for him to go away so that a major change in staffing will occur and things will get better. After every incident he orchestrates, Bill Latham soon disappears for about a week on “vacation” and returns a bit better than he was before he left. Soon however, he slides backwards and things are again serious.

Because #581 continues to be a hostile working environment and the Store Manager William "Bill" Latham has created yet another unnecessary situation that has no merit and has yet again violated not only KROGER policies and procedures, but basic human dignity and respect, I once again request an immediate transfer to another store. Unless Bill Latham is finally going to be removed for his documented issues that I and others have long raised, it seems clear that I need to transfer to another store where I can resume my progress on my career path to meet my long term career goals with KROGER.

It also seems to me that others involved in this matter that resulted in my wrongful suspension without pay in preparation to be terminated once the “investigation” was complete, should also suffer significant disciplinary action.

It is my hope that with or without the assistance of the Union, this situation can be fully resolved to my satisfaction in order to avoid a very public litigation against KROGER as well as against each and every individual involved.


Sincerely,


Karl Lawrence Tipple
on my dads blog spot http://kevintipple.corner.blogspot.com