Appellate Practice Attorney serving New York, NY
While I'm not familiar with Virginia law in particular, in every jurisdiction of which I am aware, an employee can be fired for any reason, unless that reason is barred by statute (which may include not only such things as race, religion, etc. but also whistleblowing and possibly other things, but none seem applicable here) or by contract. The contract can be a personal one, or a union contract, or can even arise through an employee manual (for example, if your employee manual provided that an employee could only be fired after a hearing with a three member team from management, you would probably have a good case) or possibly through the course of conduct, i.e. if you had been allowed to do this many times before, your employer might not be allowed to fire you over it now. From what you've written, it seems as if your firing was unfair, but not illegal.
Answered on Feb 02nd, 2015 at 2:04 PM