Do I have any legal recourse? (This is different from my ADA post)

Hello again,
I have other issues with the firm that terminated me while I was on disability and I'm wondering if I have any recourse. Please read below.

I was hired in 2/08. In 5/08, my company waived the requirement for an employee to be employed for 6 mos. before they could get promoted. They did this because my manager announced he was leaving & his manager wanted me to get the job. I was a top-notch employee and performed exceedingly well in a short time so they wanted to promote me. My original job was to find employees who traveled for the company who were getting reimbursed for items that weren't business related. No one, ever, had done this before for the firm. I found $80k of stolen funds in a 6 month period.
Anyway, I need to work 8:30-5:00, and asked for 30 minute lunch. HR responded that all managers must work 8:00-5:00 and must take a 60 minute lunch. I asked if there was any way around this because I couldn't start at 8:00. They refused to be flexible, but they still wanted me to take the position. Now, I already knew that managers in HR were working 9-5 instead of 8-5, and also were taking a 60 minute lunches. They aren't in my department(accounting), so I don't know if they're considered in the same job class as me, which may affect any legal recourse I might have.
I had to reluctantly refuse the promotion and a $14,000 raise (that hurt). Two months later, a new hire came in and guess what? She works 8:30AM-5:00PM, and takes a 30 minute lunch! Sometimes she comes in at 8:00 and leaves at 4:30. When I asked my boss about this, he said she "has a kid, I didn't know that when I interviewed her." In PA, family status isn't a protected class under employment law.
Also, about 80% of the jobs duties I was told I would perform if I took the promotion were stripped from the position. The new hire works about 2 hours per day and spends the rest watching electronic TV, emailing/texting and doing college homework.
I feel cheated out of $14,000. I told my boss 2 months after she started that I wanted her job because she has the job I asked for. Of course he said no.
So, is there anything legal here that I can do? Two lawyers I spoke with said it's an 'at will' state and the company can do whatever they want.
If HR made exceptions to their managers' hours policy, can I apply that to my department & file a claim/suit saying they didn't treat me the same way?
Any insight would be so helpful. I thought of contacting the ACLU, but this is all so new to me, to have to go through all this.
Finally, my position had me find a lot of illegal activity by employees and management, including IRS stuff. I know a lot of bad stuff about them, and they know I know, because it was my job to point it all out to them. But they never did anything about the illegal stuff, never made amends with authorities.
Thanks for reading such a long post and for any replies.

That is a long post I will only address part of it hopefully other posters will chime in.
The attorneys you spoke with were a bit loose with the “at-will” presumption. At-will means you can be terminated for any reason, and there are a lot of limits to that.

Now as far as your boss accommodating a woman that has a kid; he is with in his rights to do so even though there is no law requiring it. Now if you were a single father and the boss denied you the same opportunity possibly a case could be made.
JoeC (McGruff)

Thanks for the reply.

What about job classes? Is my entire office one 'job class' where all employees must be treated the same, or is each department a 'job class' where only those departmental employees must be treated the same?

For example, I worked at a transportation firm many years ago. The drivers and loaders had their own separate rules for work hours and vacations, etc. The office personnel had a separate set of rules for work hours and vacations. But, each department within the office didn't have different rules, then entire office personnel had to follow the same office policy.

If the entire office has to follow the same policy, then wouldn't HR have made an exception to the 8-5 work hours, thereby opening themselves up to making a mistake by not allowing me an exception?

Thanks

You’re talking apples and oranges, the rules imposed on drivers are state and federal rules unique to driving trucks or other vehicles (hours of service, dot physical qualifications, etc). The rules crafted for employees where you work now are crafted exclusively by the employer, at his discretion.
JoeC (McGruff)

JoeC (McGruff) wrote:You’re talking apples and oranges, the rules imposed on drivers are state and federal rules unique to driving trucks or other vehicles (hours of service, dot physical qualifications, etc). The rules crafted for employees where you work now are crafted exclusively by the employer, at his discretion.
JoeC (McGruff)

Ok, I picked a bad example. I also worked at a research laboratory. The scientists had a different set of employment rules (hours, vacation, etc) than office personnel.

I think there's some kind of federal law that speaks to "job classes" and the legalities of them. I have to search for them...

I don't see anything here. Sorry

Eric