Waitress allegedly fired for talking on job

Megan Lawlor has worked at Montana’s Cookhouse in Lethbridge since 2011 and was shocked after allegedly being terminated without a reason.

“Everyone knows when I’m at work I’m there to make money. I’m a student and I am trying to put myself through school,” said Lawlor.

A student at Lethbridge College, Lawlor says she started hearing rumors from her co-workers who said they were missing hours from their paycheque’s . She decided to start taking pictures of the time clock and documenting every minute she worked.

“I just wanted to keep track because I felt like they were being very dishonest.”

Lawlor discovered eight hours were docked from her last paycheque.

“If this happened to everyone on their pay cheques on approximately 7.92 hours that would be $92,000 thousand dollars a year they would be saving,” adds Lawlor.

She confronted the owner and says four days later she was fired.

According to Lawlor the owner of Montana’s says she was not meeting job expectations and was told they dock time off when waitresses aren’t productive or talking.

Global News spoke to a labour lawyer to find out the legalities of such a claim

“An employer is generally not allow to make deductions from someone’s pay cheque. That’s things like CPP, EI and income tax or have something in writing to make other deductions,” said David van Moorsel a lawyer with with Twin River Law.

The franchise owner of the Lethbridge Montana’s Cookhouse did not want to give Global News an interview but instead provided us with this statement:

““I recently had a discussion with an associate about the missing hours on one of her paycheques, in which I indicated that performance issues had been a factor during that work period. It was wrong not to issue the full paycheque for all hours worked. I want to apologize to the associate involved, and advise that my business is in the process of issuing payment for the missing hours.” – Doaa Ajani, franchise owner

Global News also reached out to corporate headquarters for comment and they provided us with the following:

““Restaurant associates are one of our most important assets, and our company strives to always ensure that everyone working for our brands is treated with respect and fairness at all times.

We were recently made aware of an issue relating to missing hours on the paycheque of a Montana’s Cookhouse associate in Lethbridge, Alberta. As we understand it, the franchise owner did not provide the full payment amount owed, but was already in the process of issuing the missing payment amount to the individual involved. This is not an acceptable practice and we are working with the restaurant owner to ensure that the associate is paid for all time owed.”

Lowlar says she is speaking out on behalf of other waitresses to prevent this from happening to someone else.

“I want everyone to be aware that they should be taking pictures or keeping track of hours. I feel like they make up their own rules”