PRACTICE AREAS

At Will Employment

California has laws to ensure that employees are treated fairly and that employers cannot make unnecessary demands or impose unfair or illegal policies upon an employee.

“At-will employment” is a phrase referring to the rights of the employer and the employee to terminate the working relationship at any time. Simply put, an employee can quit at any time, and an employer can fire an employee at any time – for good cause, bad cause or no cause at all – but not for an illegal reason. That means, even if an employee is “at will,” an employer cannot fire that employee for any reason that violates public policy, Examples of public policies that protect workers from retaliation, discrimination or termination include:

• Age discrimination
• Race discrimination
• Sex or gender discrimination
• National origin discrimination
• Sexual orientation discrimination
• Medical or physical disability discrimination

Other public policies that protect workers from retaliation, discrimination or termination include:

• Pregnancy
• Jury Duty
• Whistle blowing
• Reporting OSHA or health and safety violations
• Being injured on the job, or making a worker’s compensation claim
• Sexual harassment
• Retaliation for reporting any of the above