Public Policy Exceptions
Under the public policy exception, an employer may not fire an employee if it would violate the state's public policy doctrine or a state or federal statute.
This includes retaliating against an employee for performing an action that complies with public policy (such as informing the authorities of an illegal activity, for instance abuse of a resident in a nursing home), as well as refusing to perform an action that would violate public policy. In this diagram, the pink states have the 'exception', which protects the employee.
As of October 2000, forty-three U.S. states and the District of Columbia recognize public policy as an exception to the at-will rule.
The 7 states which do not have the exception are:
- Alabama
- Georgia
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Nebraska
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Florida – three limited conditions can override an at-will agreement
Read more about this topic: At-will Employment
Famous quotes containing the words public, policy and/or exceptions:
“If Los Angeles has been called “the capital of crackpots” and “the metropolis of isms,” the native Angeleno can not fairly attribute all of the city’s idiosyncrasies to the newcomer—at least not so long as he consults the crystal ball for guidance in his business dealings and his wife goes shopping downtown in beach pajamas.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If matrimony be really beneficial to society, the custom that ... married women alone are allowed any claim to place, is as useful a piece of policy as ever was invented.... The ridicule fixed on the appellation of old maid hath, I doubt not, frightened a very large number into the bonds of wedlock.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“Every declaration of love contains an unstated list of exceptions and demands.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)