QUESTION
Position being eliminated - what are my rights?
Asked on Jan 07th, 2016 on Labor and Employment - North Carolina
More details to this question:
I live in North Carolina and work for a publicly traded company in their US office (the headquarters is in Toronto, Canada). I was told my position may be eliminated within the company and want to know my rights regarding severance and unemployment. They stated the reason was not because of my work or me, but that they need to slim corporate costs and the C-executives were taking pay cuts, basically they cannot afford to pay me anymore. There are no employment "contracts" other than my offer letter, nor is there an HR department I can go to or policies in place (the company was formed in 2014, no HR department or documentation). They offered to maybe move me to a different company under the Parent (I work for the Parent), but that doesn't have any growth capabilities and I have no experience in that field. If I turn that down, am I giving up any rights? Can they just let me go?
1 ANSWER
4 Awards
North Carolina is an employment-at-will state which means you can be fired for any reason and there is no liability for the employer unless there is an unlawful motive for the action taken against you. There are generally only two forms of unlawful motives: unlawful discrimination or unlawful retaliation. Discrimination in employment is unlawful if it is due to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability or age 40 or older. Retaliation in employment is unlawful if you engaged in one of a handful of "legally protected" activities and were fired for engaging in that activity. If either of these was the motive for the termination, then you may have a claim for unlawful termination.
So the short answer is: yes you can be let go and you will not have a claim unless one of the above applies. However, you may want to consult with an experienced employment attorney to go more in depth about your facts.
Answered on Jan 15th, 2016 at 5:00 AM
I am an experienced attorney focusing on employment law in North Carolina and Tennessee. This post/response is not meant to constitute legal advice.