Coworker Terminated for Being Late Because of Voting Lines, Was it Actually Legal for the Owners to Do That?

So during Election Day, my coworker went to vote about 2-3 hours before her shift and said in the work group chat that she might be late, but she’d try not to be. Our boss only replied with, ‘I wouldn’t be late.’

She then stayed to vote and didn’t leave the voting area until after 8. At that point, she thought they’d be furious if she showed up an hour before closing, so she didn’t go. Today, I noticed she was removed from the group chat in the morning and personally messaged her to ask. That’s when she told me she had no idea why and that they had fired her.

This is her first ‘offense’ and there have been many employees who have no-called no-showed and still work here. Is this legal? Is there any way to get her job back?

(She’s only a student, so she doesn’t have the time or money to get a lawyer.) (We live in Texas.)

Texas law allows 2 consecutive hours to vote on election day as long as they have not voted early. You can check the details here.

Inconsistent policy regarding no-call no-shows could be a reason to apply for unemployment.

@Val
I can’t believe Texas has rainbow buttons on an official website.

@Val
Does the AG’s opinion that the time allowed must be ‘reasonable and sufficient’ protect an employee if long lines make that two hours insufficient?

@Val
Unless the employee has at least two consecutive hours to vote outside of working hours—see Sections 276.001 and 276.004 of the Texas Election Code.

The coworker had more than two consecutive hours to vote before work, so this may not apply.

How long was her shift? Did she spend 10 hours at the polling booth?

Heath said:
How long was her shift? Did she spend 10 hours at the polling booth?

Exactly. If she got done voting with an hour left in her shift, she could have come to work. Choosing not to show up could be grounds for termination.

Many countries vote on Sundays to mitigate this issue, though it doesn’t completely solve it.

Employers are required by law to accommodate employees to vote. She might have good grounds to dispute the firing. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a place that treats employees this way.

Charlie said:
Employers are required by law to accommodate employees to vote. She might have good grounds to dispute the firing. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a place that treats employees this way.

Does not showing up for the end of her shift matter? It seems she just took the entire shift off.

Charlie said:
Employers are required by law to accommodate employees to vote. She might have good grounds to dispute the firing. Personally, I wouldn’t want to work for a place that treats employees this way.

Even if she doesn’t want her job back, she should pursue this to prevent them from doing it again.

I would not want to work there if they fired me for that. But she may have grounds for a complaint.