Legal Question in Employment Law in Minnesota
My husband recently accepted a position as a part-time paramedic with an ambulance service. As part of his training, he was asked to complete orientation out of town for 1 week. Prior to this orientation, he had been contacted about interviewing for another full-time firefighter position. While driving to his orientation on Monday morning, he was contacted back about interviewing for the second job and they were unwilling to accommodate his out-of-town schedule for the week. He discussed things with his new superiors immediately upon arriving at the paramedic orientation and asked if he could complete the final day of orientation during the next orientation period, as the ambulance service had originally allowed him to opt for which of the two orientation periods he desired. They thought this sounded okay, but said they'd discuss his orientation situation the next morning. When he arrived the next day they told him completing his orientation at the later date would not be an option & that he needed to decided immediately that morning if he was going to stay with the ambulance service or quit to interview for the firefighter job. Can they do this? Can they force a resignation or fire him before he completes orientation, when originally they had offered him the opportunity to pick which week his orientation was to be held?
1 Answer from Attorneys
An employer may certaainly require an employee to attend a mandatory orientation and terminate them if they are unable to do so.