Legal Question in Business Law in Maine

Fired and not allowed to rebutt charges made to board

What are an employee's rights when accusations were made to board of directors without giving the employee a review or right to rebuttal? In a small community such as mine, this will have a negative impact on my ability to get another job. I won't go into details now, but I was accused of non-performance although I tried several times to advise my boss that software was corrupted and tracking systems were inadequate. I worked for a school run by a spiritual community, and did not wish to participate in their spiritual study groups. This I believe was the real reason I was fired. But I had no review, and never had an opportunity to face the charges made to the board.


Asked on 1/24/09, 11:48 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jerome Gamache Ainsworth Thelin & Raftice, P.A.

Re: Fired and not allowed to rebutt charges made to board

In Maine, if you do not have a contract you are an "employee at will" which means that you can be fired for reasons other than poor performance, and essentially no good reason at all. Maine statute protects you from being fired for civil rights violations due to gender, race, etc. You should contact the Maine Human Rights Commissiion if you feel that was the case and the performance reasons were just a pretext for civil right violation.

If you had an employee handbook it may provide due process methods for rebutting performance issues, but there is no Maine law that gives you the right to rebut the issue before the board.

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Answered on 1/25/09, 9:30 am


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