Employer At Will! Will this Prevent Employers from Wrongful Termination Allegations?

Why Should You Attend:

The impact of Employer At Will has increased in the past several years with the increase of workplace laws and regulations. Employers must be aware of how this increase impacts their business. The workplace regulatory agencies have always supported employees who have suffered workplace discrimination, wrongful termination, constructive discharge and retaliation abuse.

Most regulatory agencies have information available to employees on how they can file claims if they felt they have been a victim of any of the above negative situations. In fact, the regulatory agencies actively communicate and offer support for employees to make claims. Based on those issues, Employers are at risk for not only legitimate claims but also false claims which Employers are obligated to prove they have not committed the action alleged. This is exasperated if the Employer does not have all their other workplace compliance initiatives in place.

Employers must learn to mitigate these critical compliance risk or pay heavy penalties! Employers, Leadership and HR Professionals must attend this training to receive the tools necessary to add to their risk management strategies!

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• The myths and facts about Employer At Will
• Impact of the Employer At Will and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforcement on discrimination
• What protected classes are exempt from Employer At Will
• Cases where “Wrongful Termination claims were won by employees
• Where does Retaliation overlap with Employer At Will
• What is the difference between Constructive Discharge and Wrongful Terminations
• How Employers can prepare for allegations of Wrongful Terminations
• How Managers can take steps to reduce their liability for allegations of discrimination
• What fines and penalties are tied to Wrongful Termination litigation
• Learn how Volatile Terminations can impact safety for Employers, Managers and Employees
• Free Volatile Termination Checklist for all attendees!

Who Will Benefit:

• All Employers
• Business Owners
• Company Leadership
• Small business owners
• Managers/Supervisors/Promoted Supervisors
• Potential Manager/Supervisors
• Compliance professionals
• Professionals responsible for Hiring/Firing
• HR professionals

Margie Pacheco Faulk
Sr HR Consultant, HR Compliance Solutions

Margie Faulk, PHR, SHRM-CP is a senior level human resources professional with over 14 years of HR management and compliance experience. Margie currently provides compliance services for a large global data protection technologies company with International and multi-state locations with headquarters in Mountain View, California. A former Compliance Officer for a defense contracting technologies firm with a military base in Hawaii, Margie has worked as an HR and Compliance advisor for major corporations and small businesses in the following industries: Non-profit, construction, defense contracting and federal government, hospitality, military simulation, engineering, technologies, banking, homebuilding, hospitality, retail, real estate, criminal justice, legal system, commercial property management facilities operations and volunteer management. Margie is bilingual (Spanish) fluent and Bi-cultural.

Margie is working currently on International compliance initiatives like International Privacy Issues, Drafting & Implementing International policies, Reviewing and Amending Global Employment Policies, Cross-Border Reductions in Force and Restructurings, Multi-jurisdictional employee investigations, Global Diversity Programs, Expatriate Legal Issues and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

Margie holds professional human resources certification (PHR) from the HR Certification Institution (HRCI) and SHRM-CP certification from Society for Human Resources Management. is a member of the Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE).

Topic Background:

At-Will Employment relationship means that either the employer or the employee is free to end the relationship at any time, with or without advance notice, and for any reason (or no reason) at all. At-will employment seems to give at-will employers free reign to fire employees. However, "wrongful termination" is a major exception to at-will employment. It is critical to note that Employers who believe that the At-Will Employment gives them a protection for termination decisions made without preparing appropriately for all termination decisions.

As a Compliance Advisor for Employers, the focus of my risk management strategy is to have Employers who want to terminate any employee is to answer the Y Factor Principle. The Y Factor Principle for Termination is actually not as formal as some might think (even though it sounds snazzy) but, it addresses the following for all terminations:

• Why this employee?
• Why now?
• What was the reason for the termination?
• Are there concerns about the employee being a “protected” employee?
• Was the employee communicated about the behavior or infraction?

All Employers should go through similar questions for each termination. A decision to terminate should not be taken lightly. It should be taken seriously and each manager should be aware that a decision to terminate impacts the employee, other employees, Managers and leadership. In fact, the decision to terminate can push an employee to the limit since you are taking away the employees livelihood.

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