Legal Question in Business Law in Louisiana

My daughter and son-in-law decided to cook a meal once a month at Hope Lodge here in New Orleans. This is part of a mission outreach from their group at church. My story begins at one of these meals.

This particular evening, my son-in-law had invited some of his coworkers to participate, in an effort to get his employer to join in. He forewarned them about me, because I am very outspoken. When my wife and I arrived, he proceeded to tell me to behave myself. He then introduced his coworkers. One young lady is African-American. Her first statement was, �He�s my white daddy�. She looked at my wife and said, �That makes you my white momma�. My wife replied, �No, that would make me your white grandma�. He said he heard me say, �I have one like you�. I do not recall saying that. However, I do recall telling her about a precious little African-American baby boy that lives next door to us. He calls me Poppa.

My son-in-law got extremely angry at me and later said that this could have caused him to lose his job.

Is such an outcome possible?


Asked on 5/18/15, 10:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Adam Lambert The Law Office of Adam S. Lambert

It wouldn't be actionable or be considered any sort of harassment, for several reasons (they were not at work or required to be there for work, you are not a co-worker, the statements are not actionable statements, and it was not any sort of ongoing situation). Still, is it possible he could be fired for it? Yes. Louisiana is an at-will employment state. Unless an employee has an employment contract or is a member of a union with a collective bargaining agreement, he can be fired with or without cause...for any reason or for no reason at all, subject only to the laws of discrimination (e.g., he can't be fired because of his own race, religion, national origin, etc.). The example I give people is that if your employer comes in one day and says, "My astrologist says I should avoid Libras," and you say, "That's funny, I'm a Libra." If your employer says, "You are? You're fired," there is nothing at all illegal about that and you would have no recourse unless you had a collective bargaining agreement through a union. So, the short answer is YES, he could have been fired for that.

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Answered on 5/19/15, 5:55 am


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