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I was wondering if you guys can help me out a bit. I feel like I have been wrongfully dismiss by my general manager.

I had 5 days left off my probation and he decided to terminate me on Nov 9, 2018. He came in early 30 min before my shift ended and he gave me my termination letter. The termination letter said that it was effective on Nov 8 2018, but I still work from 11:00 pm of Nov 8 until Nov 9, 6:30 pm. Now my coworker said that my former manager hired a person that has the same national origin as him. I feel like that is discrimination, because I did nothing wrong. I worked hard. I don't sleep on the job. I did my job and did not receive any complains from my coworker.

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    Normally the point of a probation period is that either party can stop the contract early if things are not working out. Maybe that's what happened here. Just because another person was hired from the same country as your boss, does not mean there is illegal discrimination going on. Even if you did nothing wrong does not mean you are a good fit for the company or position.
    – Brandin
    Nov 16, 2018 at 7:04
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    This question seriously needs a location tag. We can't help you in a case like this without knowing what country you're in (and, if you're in the US, what state).
    – David Thornley
    Nov 16, 2018 at 17:07
  • Did you ask why you were terminated, or did you just decide it was so the GM could hire someone else who was the same ethnicity?
    – Comic Sans Seraphim
    Nov 17, 2018 at 17:30

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The probationary period is meant for the company to try out the candidate and be able to terminate the relationship more easily should the candidate turn out to be a poor fit for the company. The poor fit could have been purely from a culture perspective and not related to your work performance.

The former manager hiring someone of the same nationality isn't sufficient evidence of discrimination unfortunately. I would focus your attention on finding a new position and definitely make sure you got paid for your work from 11:00 pm of Nov 8 until 6:30 pm Nov 9. The error in your termination letter could cost you a day's compensation.

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Since you were on your probation period, you cannot do anything about it, and to claim some ethnicity problems you must have some very good facts on your side.
You can only insist that he modify the date on the letter to be able (if they are not doing it) to pretend the pay of the additional day you worked else they can try to pay you a day less which is not correct.

What you can do, if you really want to fight, is to try to find out if there is a long string of people hired and then fired just before the end of the probation period.
This because, depending on where you live/work, it can be an illegal thing to do since this way the employer is abusing some facilitation he can have where hire people.

To be clear: it is not illegal to fire one/two person while in probation period, but if you have a string of 10/15 people which got hired and the fired just before the ending of the probation period this can be suspicious and, depending on where you are based, can be a base for an investigation (I have a direct experience about it) But even this will not give your job back, it will only (eventually) punish a bad employer abusing the rules.

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  • If the OP can convince a court that illegal discrimination occurred (and that's going to be difficult), the OP might get an award of money. That's not getting the job back, but it's better for the OP than just punishing a bad employer.
    – David Thornley
    Nov 16, 2018 at 17:10
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This could very well be a case of discrimination or nepotism (the latter more likely) but unless you have definitive proof that you were let go due to your ethnicity or nationality, your best bet would probably be to let it go and move on. You didn’t provide any information as to the details of your contract or your location, but under most circumstances, it’s perfectly legal to dismiss an employee without needing to cite a good reason. This is especially true given you were on your probation period.

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  • Actually, in the places where it's perfectly legal to dismiss an employee for any cause, formal employment contracts are rare.
    – David Thornley
    Nov 16, 2018 at 17:09
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It really depends on where OP lives. In some jurisdictions probationary periods matter, and in others they are not worth the paper they are written on. It depends on the laws in each state (or province, municipality)

In for instance the United States people are generally on an 'at-will' contract and can be terminated for whatever reason.

If in Canada then even during a probationary period the person might be entitled to a few months notice, see https://www.monkhouselaw.com/employment-law-myths-implied-probationary-periods/ by Toronto Employment Lawyer Andrew Monkhouse.

In the UK there are workplace tribunals, etc. The most important thing is to contact a lawyer or paralegal who is willing to give some free information on the phone in your area and talk to them about the situation. They can tell you how things work where you live and help you if you have a case.

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A possible route that has a small chance of working while being unlikely to hurt you: There is the possibility that your manager was indeed discriminating against you, but the company is against such practices.

So you could contact HR and inform them of the situation. What will happen: Most likely nothing. Possibly your ex-manager will be told off and get into trouble. Not a bad result for you. And maybe, maybe someone higher up will figure out that you haven't done anything wrong and were dismissed without any good reason and act on this.

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