Kroger 581 thanks dad

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
Www.Facebook.com/thundercatsnyy
Www.Kevintipple.corner.blogspot.com