LIMESTONE, Maine — The Maine Human Rights Commission unanimously voted on Sept. 23 to “find reasonable grounds” to believe that Dollar General retaliated against Limestone employee Jack Westfall in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act.
According to the investigator’s report, Westfall first filed his complaint on Jan. 15 and said his employer was “unlawfully deleting hours from [Westfall’s] time worked.” Dollar General did not deny this, nor that they retaliated against Westfall.
Westfall said he began to suspect his store manager of deleting hours from his payroll, which a co-worker also witnessed. This resulted in Westfall “illegally working off the clock,” according to the report. When he reported this to the district manager, his hours were cut in half. He was also denied a Thanksgiving bonus and a promotion to a full-time position following his complaint.
Shortly afterward, Westfall was told that he would receive a write-up for “customer complaints related to his attitude and for maintaining a beard.” He was fired that day after refusing to sign the write-up.
Following the complaint, the Human Rights Commission informed Dollar General that if they did not respond to the employee’s complaint, a summary determination would be made. According to the investigator’s report, Dollar General “did not respond.”
The summary determination, which is included in the investigator’s report, stated that Dollar General retaliated against Westfall for “protected conduct.”
“[Westfall] reported that his supervisor was unlawfully deleting hours from payroll,” the report states, “and he was denied ‘something of consequence’ thereafter when his hours were cut, he missed a bonus, and he was denied a promotion. Additionally, his employment was terminated in apparent retaliation for his reporting. Because [Dollar General] did not provide any nondiscriminatory reason for its actions, [Westfall] has established that he was retaliated against for his protected conduct.”
Dollar General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
