Can your employer discuss with your fellow co-workers the fact that you will be terminated prior to your being given notice yourself?

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Can your employer discuss with your fellow co-workers the fact that you will be terminated prior to your being given notice yourself?

My supervisor openly discussed how I will be terminated with other supervisors and in front of co-workers without me knowing.

Asked on August 3, 2010 under Employment Labor Law, Texas

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 13 years ago | Contributor

What your supervisor is doing is incredibly unprofessional. However, it may not be anything actionable or prohibited. There is no law stating that an employer cannot discuss an employment action with other workers before discussing it with the worker who will be affected. The only possible recourse may be:

* If the supervisor is making untrue factual statements about you, he may be committing defamation.

* If he's saying anything about you that is, or basing his treatment of you in, anything discriminatory about a race, religion, sex/gender, age over 40, or disability, he may be committing employment harassment or discrimination.

* If he's releasing private information about you (e.g. about a medical condition) that may be an invasion of privacy.

* If there's a union contract, he'd need to follow it's terms about discipline and termination

* POSSIBLY, if there's a very strong, unequivocal statement in an employee handbook about this this to be filed, and there are not caveats or "weasel words" limiting it, it may be that it forms an implied contract which you could enforce.


IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.

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