Legal Question in Employment Law in California

California is an employment-at-will state. That means that any employer can take an adverse action, disciipling, against an employee at any time for any reason that is not against the law or discriminatory.

There are exceptions to employment-at will. Those are:

1. An employment contract. In California, an employment contract does not necessarily have to be in writing. It may be implied by the actions of the employer, or what the employer says.

2. An employment manual that states employment is not at will, or that certain procedures must be followed to discipline.

3. A union agreement.

4. In California, there is a good-faith exception as well, which means that in the termination must not be made in bad faith or maliciously. A bad faith or malicious reason for termination would be, for example, making up allegations that an employee was late to discipline the employee.

5. In California, an employee may not be disciplined for reasons in violation of California�s public policy.

6. There may be additional exceptions that apply to public employees, such as police officers and employees of government agencies.

If your employer has a written grace period, then the employer should not be disciplining an employee who clocks in within that grace period.