Firing a felon after three years of employment
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
Firing a felon after three years of employment
My husband has been employed by a national company in FL for 3.5 years. Today, he was suspended without pay, pending termination, for failure to fully disclose pre-employement convictions/arrests. On his application he wrote that he is a felon and listed the county and state of the conviction, as asked, but left the “explain” field blank. He provided a verbal explanation to the supervisor that hired him. What should we do? Are there any Florida laws governing this sort of discrimination? We would ask the supervisor that hired him to write a letter, but he died.
Asked on May 12, 2009 under Employment Labor Law, Florida
Answers:
B. B., Member, New Jersey Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
Like most states, in Florida employment is "at will" unless there is a written contract. This means that the company can fire an employee for no reason at all. So even if the reason the company has given for firing your husband doesn't hold water, it is still not unlawful.
It is possible, but relatively rare, for an employee handbook to be considered a a contract for this purpose, and a "national company" has probably had its own lawyers make sure that their handbook will not fall into this category. But if there is such a handbook, you might want to have someone who practices labor law in Florida look at it. One place to find qualified lawyers is our website, http://attorneypages.com
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.