Training replacement after being laid off
My company is relocating the accounting dept and we are all losing our jobs. However 80% of my job is now going to be kept here in the office I now work in but they asking me to train someone else here to do the job, is that allowed as I am still being made redundant?
Answers (1)
New York is employment at will state
To start, you need to remember that New York is an employment at will state. That means that you can be fired at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Thus, whether your department is being eliminated or not, or whether your job will be remaining in the office or not is simply not relevant. You can be terminated for no reason anyway.
There are all sorts of exceptions to the employment at will doctrine. The biggest two are for civil servants (that is, people who work for NY State or a local governmental entity), and union members (provided your union has a contract with your employer which limits the circumstances under which your employer may fire you, which every union contract I have ever heard of does). Another major exception which covers a much smaller number of people involves people lucky or unlucky enough to have employment contracts which limit terminations.
There are other exceptions, but these exceptions cover not classes of employees but the real reason for termination. For example, you cannot terminate someone because of that person's race, religion, national origin, gender, handicap, or age. The problem with these cases is that you have to find a way of proving that one of the reasons for terminating someone was one of those protected reasons. This is tricky, though not impossible. This exception, of course, deals with discrimination.
Sometimes the discrimination exceptions can cover more people than might originally appear. I'll give you an example from my own experience. I once represented a manager who was a black woman. Her employer wanted to terminate her, and it appeared that the employer wanted to terminate her because she was a black woman. But the employer wanted to cover up this reason because, of course, terminating someone because that person is black or female is illegal. So, the employer decided to terminate the entire department. In this case, not only was the black, female manager entitled to a remedy, but so was every member of the staff of her department, even though there was no evidence that the employer wanted to discriminate against any member of the protected class.
posted by David M. Lira | Feb 19, 2001 2:30 PM [EST]
To start, you need to remember that New York is an employment at will state. That means that you can be fired at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Thus, whether your department is being eliminated or not, or whether your job will be remaining in the office or not is simply not relevant. You can be terminated for no reason anyway.
There are all sorts of exceptions to the employment at will doctrine. The biggest two are for civil servants (that is, people who work for NY State or a local governmental entity), and union members (provided your union has a contract with your employer which limits the circumstances under which your employer may fire you, which every union contract I have ever heard of does). Another major exception which covers a much smaller number of people involves people lucky or unlucky enough to have employment contracts which limit terminations.
There are other exceptions, but these exceptions cover not classes of employees but the real reason for termination. For example, you cannot terminate someone because of that person's race, religion, national origin, gender, handicap, or age. The problem with these cases is that you have to find a way of proving that one of the reasons for terminating someone was one of those protected reasons. This is tricky, though not impossible. This exception, of course, deals with discrimination.
Sometimes the discrimination exceptions can cover more people than might originally appear. I'll give you an example from my own experience. I once represented a manager who was a black woman. Her employer wanted to terminate her, and it appeared that the employer wanted to terminate her because she was a black woman. But the employer wanted to cover up this reason because, of course, terminating someone because that person is black or female is illegal. So, the employer decided to terminate the entire department. In this case, not only was the black, female manager entitled to a remedy, but so was every member of the staff of her department, even though there was no evidence that the employer wanted to discriminate against any member of the protected class.
posted by David M. Lira | Feb 19, 2001 2:30 PM [EST]
Answer This Question
Sign In to Answer this Question
Related Questions with Answers