Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Employee Rights within At Will Employment

I've worked in HR and I'm familiar with PA being an ''At Will'' state. I've also read previous threads that discuss this matter, however I'm still unclear. While I comprehend that being ''At Will'' means employees can be terminated at any time for any reason, if a reason is given, doesn't that reason then have to be legitimate? What I mean is that it's one thing for an employer to say that they feel things just aren't working out and it's time to seperate ways, but what if the employer instead states a specific reason that has no factual basis for the seperation, such as breach of confidentiality or theft or anything along those lines? Doesn't the employee have any rights or do they only come into play if future employment is jeopardized? It doesn't seem right that, in theory an employer could throw any unfounded or slanderous reason without consequence or am I just way off base? If an employee threw false accusations at a company, the company would have the right to refute it and go after the employee, so why isn't what's good for the goose, good for the gander?


Asked on 6/27/06, 10:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Roger Traversa Arjont Group (Law Office of Roger Traversa)

Re: Employee Rights within At Will Employment

I understand your confusion. An employer doesn't need to give a reason, a correct reason or anything or any reason within its reasonable business judgment. The question is whether the actual cause for adverse action was discriminatory against a protected class.

An employer can fire an employee "because he doesn't like the color of one's tie." But if that is just a nominal cause and the underlying cause was discrminatory the the "reason" provided by the employer is irrelevant.

Now to your point, if what the employee states is slanderous then that is actionable in and of itself. It will not generally reverse an adverse action but can under the right circumstances. If the employer is making defamatory statements then the employee may have a cause of action based on that defamation. The damages would be based on the harms to that person and her reputation, such as if she were denied a job, or her stature in the community were diminished. Though the standards to prove defamation are fairly high.

Another potential cause may be if the adverse action is based in retaliation for otherwise legitimate activity, such as reporting unsafe work conditions, harrassment, et cetera.

I can present a class on these subjects for your company if you'd like. Or if you seek representation I would be interested in speaking with you.

Regards,

Roger Traversa

email: [email protected]

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Answered on 6/27/06, 10:29 pm


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