I was employed by a retail company, I feel my rights were violated when a Assistant Manager demanded that I serve a customer who made a racial comment to me. I refused and was told to go pick up a green form, when I went to the back office another assistant manager was there and asked me what was going on, After I told her, she said that she was going to shred this green form, that she had in her hand and would leave my Assistant Manager an e-mail to give her a heads up, on what was going on. She did shred this green form in my presence and an overnight support manager. The next day when I went to work and tried to swipe my badge to clock in, my badge said invalid. When I spoke with the same assistant manager who shreded the green form, she said I was fired for not serving the customer
I don't know for sure that this is the case in WA, but generally employment is "at-will" unless they specifically tell you otherwise. What that means is that you can walk away for any reason, and they can fire you for any reason as long as they're not violating a state or federal law. Feel free to talk to a local attorney, but it doesn't sound to me as though (based on what you've given us here) that you have much to sue them about, unfortunately.
While employment in WA is at-will unless there is a specific agreement to be employed in another way, the employer is prohibited from discriminating against an employee because of certain characteristic of the employee, race being one the bases upon which discrimination is prohibited.
While the racial comment was made by a customer, the employer likely still has a duty to do something which may include banning the customer from the store if, for example, the customer frequently visits the store and commits prohibited discrimination against the employees.
What you should do is review your specific facts with attorneys. Perhaps what your employer, via its assistant manager, did was unlawful.
In general, there is only a very short time (180 days) to start the formal process in a discrimination claim. You may not want to delay in reviewing your options with attorneys. You can also file a complaint with the WA human Rights Commission. Filing a complaint directly with the HRC is free at http://www.hum.wa.gov/ .
