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Old 2007-07-13
Wrongfully axed
Anonymous Coward
 
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Default Re: Who left Erac for Vanguard

Quote:
Originally Posted by batserve View Post
Yep, many people make assumptions about employment law. In most states, you are an at will employee, meaning you are employed at the will of the company and can be terminated without cause. Sure, anyone can file a lawsuit, but if your state is an at will state, you do not have a valid claim. A prudent attorney may not even take the case because of the fear of a counter suit for filing a frivolous lawsuit. While most judges are reluctant to rule that a suit is frivolous because they do not want to be seen as putting up barriers to the idea that everyone should have the right to get their day in court, it can happen. If a suit is ruled to be frivolous, the plaintiff who filed the suit may be responsible for paying the other side's legal costs. You cannot be terminated based on discrimination for a protected group, like race, age, or gender. Your only recourse for termination without cause is to file for unemployment and you will likely receive unemployment pay; however, it is limited to a percentage of what you were making, is capped, has a time limit, and requires that you actively seek employment. Any employee should keep records, and perhaps a journal of incidents and make notes on what is said by managers. In the event of termination, you then have some actual information to provide to an attorney so he/she can make an informed decision.
The door on the employment-at-will law opens both ways - if you were fired against company policy you have a case. When I worked at Lowe's Foods years ago a support manager was accused of internal theft, got arrested, and fired. Since she was accused of a crime it was the company's policy to suspend her without pay until she was convicted then fire her upon conviction. But because she was fired before actually being convicted (which she was also cleared on all charges) it was a clear violation of company policy.

The end result was even though it was a employment-at-will she was able to sue on grounds that she was fired against company policy and Lowe's Foods settled out of court for an undisclosed (albeit large) sum.
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