Legal Question in Employment Law in Washington
Fired for DD214
I was hired by a military retail chain had been working there for about 7 weeks, they asked for my dd214 which had a misconduct discharge, but was under honorable conditions. Then fired. Is there any law that protects me for wrongful termination. They should have asked for this before hire. Please help.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Fired for DD214
Washington is an �at will� employment state. Basically you can be fired for any reason as long as the reason isn�t based on some sort of unlawful discrimination or amounting to a violation of the public policy of this state.
In Washington, it�s not illegal to discriminate against someone who received a misconduct discharge from the military. I agree that they probably should have screened your prior military service and discharge characterization more closely and perhaps sooner, but this is not a case of wrongful discharge.
Have you ever considered looking into the possibility of having your discharge officially upgraded? Every service has a Board for Corrections of Military Records that has the power to upgrade most misconduct discharges unless adjudged as a result of a court-martial. Since your discharge has already cost you two jobs (first your job in the military and now secondly this one), I suggest that seriously look into having this discharge upgraded as soon as you can.