Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

Re: firing

Yes .... UNLESS illegal discrimination was involved or UNLESS there is an employment contract or employee manual which specifies that an employee can be fired ONLY FOR CAUSE and/or which specifies that an employee must be given a warning prior to termination.

If there is such an employment contract (and, in some cases, even just an employmees' manual which some courts in some deem to be contractually binding on the employer), then the employer is coontractually obligated to fire ONLY FOR CAUSE, with proper justification, and/or only after warning the employye, depending upon the precise wording of the employment contract and/or employees' manual.

Various federal and state and city civil rights laws make it illegal for the employer to terminate an employee based on the employer's bias against the employee because of the employee's race or religion or gender or ethnicity/nationality or sexual orientation or age or against the employee's disability.

Therefore, if a fired employee can show that he was fired because of the employer's discrimination against race or against nationality/ethnicity age or against gender or against religion or against age or, in some types of cases, against disability, then that employee may be able to take legal action against the employer and, e.g., be awarded money damages from the employer.

Otherwise, the "employment-at-will" doctrine allows the employer to fire employees without justification and without warning.