No You Can’t Fire Employees For That Reason
By Cubie King
We continue our supervisor and human resources (HR) core training on employment laws with a brief discussion on “at will” and “for cause” terminations. Montana is currently the only state considered a “for cause” state. All others are considered “at will.” Does this mean an employer can terminate an employee’s services at any time with or without cause? Yes, that is the meaning of “at will,” but is this true. No it is not true. Here are some exceptions to the at will doctrine.
Not For Exercising Rights
While there are many lawful protections employers can utilize to guard against employment lawsuit, prohibiting employees from exercising their legal rights is not one of them. You cannot prevent an employee from bringing a charge against the company. This is their right under Title VII Laws, which are enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The organization cannot put the word out that employees are prevented from talking to authorities (especially during a government audit or investigation). It might very well find itself fighting very serious obstructions of justice charges.
Additionally, it is the employee’s right to bring up illegal issues such as sexual harassment, or discrimination based on say, their religion. The employer cannot punish the employee for exercising this right when they feel violated. Here is one other example. Let’s say an employee calls the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and reports unsafe working conditions in the workplace. It is illegal for the organization to track down the source of the leak, and punish them for making the call, which may have initiated a full blow investigation. Not only is the employee exercising their legal right, the courts ruled that the organization has a legal duty to fix those unsafe working condition in an expeditious manner.
This is why it is of utmost important that supervisors and managers learn how to get disgruntled employees and whistleblowers working for, instead of against the organization. These are valuable skills that can be learned.
Not For Illegal Activities
Another exception to “at will” says the employer cannot fire the employee for refusing to take part in illegal activities. For example; let’s say the company is preparing to roll out a massive Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its stock. If the company can show more profits to the bottom line, the asking price may be inflated to reflect these profits (hence more money for the company and stockholders). Employees are instructed to make numerous entries in the books which are both fraudulent and deceptive. In other words, they instructed to cook the company’s books. The courts say you cannot terminate an employee for refusing to go along with the deception.
Another example is a supervisor demanding a quid pro quo relationship with an employee. Saying, you either go to bed with me or you are fired. This is illegal (whether by word or deed). You cannot fire a worker for refusing to take part in illegal activities.
Not For Taking Military Leave
Employee serving in our armed forces and National Guards are protected when they are called to actively serve at the services’ demand. Make sure your supervisors are not trying to drive the employee out because they don’t like the fact they are absent for this reason. You cannot terminate an employee- while they are on military leave.
Summary
Because of various exceptions to the at will doctrine, companies must keep supervisor up to date on violation of those court ordered exceptions. Make certain your human resources personnel and supervisors know when they are prohibited from firing an employee under the at will doctrine. This white paper explicates three such exceptions.
© 2009 Cubie Davis King. All Right Reserved Internationally.
Dr. Cubie Davis King, PhD. is an adjunct professor at National University San Diego, CA in the School of Business, where he teaches Training and Development. His latest work is the Supervisor Core Training System 1.0 (SCTS 1.0). A complete boot camp series of employment law training for supervisors (new and tenured). To gain access this highly effective and engaging training system go to http://www.goldcrowninc.com
Dr. King is a Performance Technologist with a Ph.D in Training & Performance Improvement. His resume includes 9 years military service, and 12 years executive positions with Xerox & CitiGroup. For the past 13 years he has consulted with hundreds of companies on employment laws, and trained thousands of HR professionals in Live Seminars throughout the country. Dr. King has won top performance awards at every level of his storied career and is passionate about improving the performance of employees and business owners. Dr. King takes complicated yet sobering employment laws and makes them palatable and entertaining for everyone on your staff to understand. To book Dr. King for your next meeting email him @ cubie@goldcrowninc.com
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