More details to this question:
I've been with my company for 14 years and work remotely. I had a NAFTA Intra-Company transfer from the U.S. to Canada. My work permit is set to expire in a few months and my Permanent Residence application has been denied. For personal reasons I do not wish to return to Ohio and would like to work from another state. My employer has a depot for technicians established in this state and as I have said before, my job is done remotely. My employer said I can only continue to work for them only if I move back to Ohio, otherwise I must resign and lose out on any severance or unemployment. However, I know their has been similar scenarios with a few other employees and they were able to return and work as contractors. Do I have any legal recourse in this matter?
1 ANSWER
Nobody can force you to resign, however that doesn't mean that your employer can't fire your for cause, which would probably means no right to unemployment (you don't say whether you have any contractual right to severance). You can seek unemployment and challenge the employer's claim that you were fired for cause and, if you are able to show that others in your situation were retained even though they did not move back to Ohio, you might win. Also, you may have a claim for unlawful termination under one or more employment discrimination statutes if you can show that the whole Ohio business was a pretext, and you are actually being fired because of your race, religion, age, gender, etc. One caveat - I'm basing this answer on U.S. law. If you are now working in Canada, Canadian law may apply, and could be very different. In general, I believe it is more favorable to employees than the law in most U.S. jurisdictions.
Answered on May 16th, 2013 at 12:04 PM