Just across the Casco Bay Bridge from Portland is suburban South Portland, home to 25,000 Mainers. South Portland has the largest working waterfront in the state. Through the Portland-Montreal Pipeline, millions of barrels of oil are shipped to South Portland every year. South Portland is also known as the retail capital of Maine, with the first strip mall built at Mill Creek in the 1950’s and the Maine Mall developed on a former pig farm in the late 60’s. The Greenbelt Walkway, which is part of the Eastern Trail, stretches for six miles through the City. South Portland also hosts the annual Tri for a Cure triathlon to raise money for cancer research.
Maine Employee Rights Group represents South Portland employees in all types of employment discrimination cases. Examples of cases we have recently handled for South Portland employees include:
Whistleblower Retaliation/Wage and Hour ViolationWe represented a young man who was terminated from his job at a national retail chain store in the Maine Mall after reporting his supervisor for altering his timesheet and shorting his pay. When the supervisor learned that our client had reported her, she ordered him to resign and threatened to blackball him from ever working at the mall again if he refused. We filed suit under Maine’s Whistleblower Protection Act, which prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who report unlawful activity in the workplace, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which imposes monetary penalties on employers who fail to pay their employees proper wages. In our investigation of the claim, we obtained sworn statements from our client’s former coworkers corroborating his claims about his supervisor which damaged the supervisor’s credibility at deposition and ultimately proved impossible for the employer to refute. The case resulted in a monetary settlement to our client shortly after we filed suit.
Race/National Origin DiscriminationOur firm represented a Puerto Rican employee at a local supermarket chain with an impeccable performance record who was terminated after he complained about his supervisor making racist remarks like “why don’t you go back to where you came from,” refusing to provide the same training that was provided to white coworkers, spying on him while he was working, falsely accusing him of misconduct, provoking him into an argument, and then disciplining him for defending himself. During our investigation, we obtained sworn statements from several coworkers attesting to our client’s impeccable work performance and corroborating his claims about the supervisor’s racism. The employer offered to settle the case while it was still pending in the Maine Human Rights Commission.
If you have been retaliated against for reporting unlawful activity in your workplace or discriminated against on the basis of your race or national origin, call Maine Employee Rights Group today, 207.874.0905, for legal consultation.