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Wearing orange and needing an inhaler – The strangest reasons people were fired

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4 states pay unemployment benefits to unvaccinated workers who were fired

Sometimes workers need to be fired for bad work, bad behavior or massive mistakes that cost the company thousands.

On other occasions, people have been fired for crazy reasons, often by bosses who have suddenly introduced new rules no one knows about.

From pocket-dialing your boss to wearing an orange T-shirt, people get fired for ridiculous reasons.

Of course, there are laws in place to prevent people being sacked for spurious reasons, and so many of the decisions have led to expensive payouts after the employees took them to court.

Here are some of the most bizarre reasons people were let go from jobs.

For needing an inhaler

JD was feeling short of breath due to asthma.

He was a former New Jersey-based factory assembly line worker.

So, he asked his supervisor at Trane Plant in Hamilton if he could go home, which was only three miles from the plant, and get his inhaler.

They criticized him for working slowly and instead, his boss told him to pick up his belongings and leave.

He sued the company and was awarded $45,000 for damages and wages.

READ MORE: DON’T GET FAT, DON’T WEAR A HAT AND NO BEARDS – THE WORLD’S WEIRDEST EMPLOYMENT LAWS

For being rude about his boss after a pocket-dial

This is one of many people’s biggest fears...especially when it's your boss on the other side of the phone.

That’s exactly what happened to James Stephens from Atlanta.

James accidentally pocket-dialed his former boss Mike Coan while venting about him to his wife.

Instead of hanging up, Mike continued listening in on the conversation for 12 minutes!

As a result, he told James he could resign or be fired the following day.

James then sued Mike for violating his privacy.

For wearing orange

At a law firm in Florida, 14 workers were fired for the color of their … shirts.

After creating an “innocent happy hour” tradition of wearing orange shirts on payday Fridays, a group of workers got the pink slip because new management thought it was a “form of protest” against them.

It turns out, the group had been doing this Friday ritual for months -- before new management came into place.

As a result, eight of the 14 employees filed a federal complaint against the law firm.

For typing in all caps

Vicki Walker from New Zealand faced consequences after typing in all caps.

In an email that she sent out to colleagues explaining how to fill out certain forms, she used a variety of capital letters, and bold and red fonts.

She said it was her way of helping to explain instructions to colleagues, management saw it as confrontational and fired her.

Walker was later awarded $17,000 for lost wages and wrongful termination and presumably her bosses felt very silly indeed.

For not charging for cheese

At a McDonald’s store in the Netherlands, an employee sold her co-worker a hamburger.

Later, the friend asked the employee to add a slice of cheese to the burger.

McDonald’s fired the employee, saying she should have charged for a cheeseburger instead of a hamburger.

Taking the case to a district court, the layoff was ruled too severe of a measure and the fast food chain was ordered to pay the employee more than 4,000 Euros in damages.

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