Legal Question in Employment Law in California
2 week compensation after quitting or termination
My husband(Walt)is a Professional Civil Engineer, working as a Project Manager for a large heavy hwy contractor. He manages $80-200,000,000 projects here in Ca. ON 12/1/00 his operations man (Fred),gave him a stop work order, Walt said he would quit before he would shut the job down, Fred said OK, Walt asked if he wanted 2 weeks, Fred-NO. Walt then retracted his desire to quit and stated he would have to be fired. They parted with the intent to meet at the main office on 12/4. Fred then went to the Superintendent on Walts job, telling him the shut the job down, he also told Fred NO, Fred's reasons were unfounded and rediculous. Fred then changed his mind about shutting the job down.
Monday 12/4, Walt meets with Fred and is handed his check with full pay through today 12/4, his termination notice stated Walt was unhappy on the job as reason for termination.
Walt has been with the company 9.5 years.End of year bonuses should be out soon which is $10-15,000.
Does Walt have any legal claim the the additional 2 weeks he origanally offed to stay?, or to the bonus he worked all year to receive? Or any case at all?
We know he is respected in the industry and will have a job soon but probably with a cut in pay.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: 2 week compensation after quitting or termination
Generally an employee is only entitled to compensation for work up until the time of the discharge or quit.
As to the bonus, he may have a claim for payment of the bonus depending upon the terms of the bonus plan. If the bonus is based solely upon his performance through a specific period and he met the performance requirements through the period he has a claim for the bonus. If he was required to be employed on a specific date to be paid the bonus and he was not there on that date, he may be able to recover a portion of the bonus or none at all.
Re: 2 week compensation after quitting or termination
The information you have supplied is inadequate to determine whether your husband has an action for wrongful termination. If the reason for his refusal to shut down the job was because the order was illegal, or if he was given the order because he had done something that was legally required, he may have a claim. If his actions were not based on any legal requirements and there was no element of retaliation, he would not have a basis for a lawsuit.
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