Throughout the United States of America, most jobs in nearly all states are considered at-will employment, you may be wondering what at-will employment truly means and if it has a huge effect on your occupation.
What does At-Will Employment mean?
At-will employment is where your job is at risk all the time and your job can be terminated on any given time by your employer. Many people think this practice is unreasonable and unfair, but the employer must do the process legally. There are certain exceptions to the at-will employment policy which include:
Discrimination – On the basis of race, sex, age, and sexual orientation
Retaliation – In no instance should you be terminated if you have complained about illegal activity in the workplace
Time off – It is illegal for an employer to terminate you if you are taking FMLA, jury duty, or USERRA.
Am I entitled to sign an At-Will Employment agreement?
Generally, employees are not forced to sign an at-will employment agreement when filing out all of the employment contracts at the start of the job. If the employee cannot do a certain task or refuses to do so then they are not entitled to sign off, however, employers are allowed to refuse to hire you in doing so. Good employers usually work with the employee and start a performance improvement plan on what the employee needs to improve on. Maduff & Maduff is here to ensure your employee rights are not being taken advantage of.
If the employer promises to not fire you for a certain amount of time because of the performance improvement plan, do not sign an at-will agreement. If you are terminated during that time, you may take legal action for wrongful termination, be sure to look over all employment contracts if you are thinking about signing off. Our attorneys at Maduff & Maduff are specialized in employment law, for more information, contact us today.