By ManicMedic

Good day,

I would like to make you aware of a situation that is occurring in the Town of Whitby, for which I have exhausted all other avenues in an attempt to resolve the issue. If I cannot obtain your support on the issue, I would at least like to bring this to your attention as the entire situation has been seen as quite disconcerting to some. I am simply attempting to make you aware, and possibly request your support with this matter.

I have been employed as a Medical Technician in the Canadian Forces Reserves since 2002. That entails training once a week on Thursday nights and some weekends for exercises or refresher first aid courses etc.

I began working with Running Room in June 2010 as Store Manager. They were aware of my commitment to the CF.

Recently I had some issues with attendance at CF training due to commitments at Running Room. Because of those, I was given a conditional offer of remaining with the CF as long as I attending mandatory refresher training on February 4-6 (Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday).

I brought this forward to my area manager at Running Room. My regular day off is Friday and I was required to work on Saturday. I was not looking to work less than 40 hours that week, I was simply asking to move the Saturday shift to Friday to accommodate training that would determine my continued involvement in the CF.

My request was turned down by the area manager. I wrote an email to John Stanton as his email address is available on www.runningroom.com. I stated my disappoint with the resistance I faced from a company that supposedly ’supports our troops’. I suggested I may go to my CF superiors and advise them that Running Room is not supportive in that it is not accommodating of mandatory training.

I received an email yesterday from Running Room head office saying they were going to terminate my employment partly because of this, but in large part due to performance issues. I would like to make you aware that I had yet to receive a second or third written or verbal warning regarding performance issues. And the issues were not mine, they were sales which are low all across the company. Anyway, I suppose they took the current situation as an opportunity to let me go based on that.

I’ve now also been informed that it’s for the best if I don’t even go into the Running Room in my own town, even if I attend sessions with my family . My question is…..Can they legally do this? I’ve given them no grounds to ban me….I mean I haven’t threatened anything. I’m not a criminal. And if I go in and don’t do anything, are they legally allowed to throw me out? All I’m asking for is to go back to the way things were before I got the job. Running Room was a big part of that, how I relieved stress. Again, I’m not a criminal, I just want to attend session and clinics with my family. They have given me no other reason for this except that I voiced my concern over not being granted time off for military training.

Thank you for your support and I welcome your comments and advice!