Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington

Re: Declining to do work outside job description

An employer is entitled to ask its employee to perform any tasks it wants. The job description is merely a description of the duties the employer may ask the employee to do � until it wants to change those duties. Employer has a right to change duties. If the employee doesn�t want to perform the requested tasks, the employee�s option is to leave the employment.

In Washington, as in many other states, employment is "at-will" which means the employer does not have to have a good reason, or even any reason, to take action against an employee. An action by an employer or its managers is illegal only if the decision breaches a contract of some sort, is discriminatory on the basis of some protected classification (such as age, race, disability, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, for example), is in retaliation for protected activity (such as whistleblowing, complaining about unpaid wages or overtime, bringing a claim against the employer, etc.), or is done in a particularly abusive way.

If an employee works under a contract of employment, either individually negotiated or collectively bargained (union), then employment is not at-will, but is governed by the terms of the contract. Also, contract rights may arise from policies, oral promises that are specific and upon which an employee specifically and reasonably relied, and possibly in other circumstances.

NOTE: The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.