Aiás Magitas, a 20-year-old forensic anthropology student from Charlotte, had been working the guest services desk at Western Carolina University’s A.K. Hinds University Center for nearly two years when he got a “vague” text from his boss around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30. He wanted Magitas to come in and talk, and Magitas was pretty sure he knew what it was about.
“I knew I was gonna get fired,” he said.
Magitas said he was shown to an interior office and told that “the department is going in a different direction and is no longer in need of your services.”
Later, when he met with Nancy Ford, the university’s director of employee relations, he was given three specific reasons for his termination, apparently gleaned from security footage of his shift the previous Saturday: sitting on the couch in the office suite during a slow part of the day, hanging out with his partner while on shift, and allowing his partner, who had brought him food, to sit behind the desk with him while he ate it. Interestingly, Magitas said, he had overslept his alarm that day and failed to show up for his scheduled shift at 9 a.m., but that mistake was not among the reasons given for termination.
Due to state laws preventing disclosure of most personnel records, WCU could not comment on the veracity of Magitas’ account. But Magitas is convinced none of the above is the real reason he lost his job.
“I got fired because I was pro-union,” he said.
Magitas, whose story...
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