If the company knows of poor performing employees yet managers are discouraged to release them for fear of the EEOC, what is the point of an Employment at Will policy?
Posted 09-09-2015
Rita M. Risser Chai replies:
The short answer is that Employment at Will policies do not protect you from discrimination claims, only from claims of wrongful termination. And even in wrongful termination cases, Employment at Will policies may not help that much. That’s why in our employment law training we recommend that employers treat employees fairly in the course of terminating them. Having said that, a lot of employers seem to be afraid of terminating any employees, even those with well-documented misconduct or poor performance. Employees can be fired, it just has to be done the right way.
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