Terminating an employee can be tricky, especially if the person’s been with the company for a long time and had gotten generally positive reviews for most of that tenure. But a recent court case brings good news for employers.
Here’s what happened: The employer fired a man who’d been with the company for 30 years. For most of that he’d gotten positive reviews, along with several raises and promotions. But his department was reorganized and three out of its five employees had to be let go. So he was terminated, and the two top performing employees were kept on board.
He sued, alleging a breach of contract. The company’s defense was simple: Employees were at-will and had no contract.
The employee argued that a contract was implied since he’d been with the company for so long. But the judge disagreed, saying that “longevity, raises and promotions do not, in and of themselves, constitute a contractual guarantee of future employment security.”
The courted noted that employees have won lawsuits on the basis of “implied contracts” before, sometimes using length of service as evidence. But in this case, the company kept itself safe by including a page in its handbook that specifically stated all employees are at-will and described what that meant.
Cite: Kang v. PB Fasteners
