What are your rights if your employer terminates you because their insurer disqualified you to drive but neither one will give you an explanation as to why?
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What are your rights if your employer terminates you because their insurer disqualified you to drive but neither one will give you an explanation as to why?
My husband worked for a sanitation company. He had one accident but was not given a ticket or found at fault; this was on Tuesday. On Wednesday he was not allowed to return to work, and on Thursday he was told the insurance company disqualified him to drive. The employer won’t tell him why or what he needs to do to correct the problem. The insurance company won’t tell him anything either even though he did not ask for policy information; he just wants information regarding what would disqualify him.
Asked on November 10, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, South Carolina
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
Unfortunately, your husband probably does not have any recourse here:
1) If he did not have an employment contract, he could be terminated for any reason, at any time, with no notice--and even if he had a contract, not being able to be covered by the employer's insurance for driving, if driving was part of his job, would be valid cause.
2) An employer does not need to disclose its reasons for terminating an employee--though in this case, your husband was told: it's because he was disqualified to drive.
3) Insurers are not required to disclose the reasons for their decisions to not cover someone, unless you were to sue them and use the legal process of discovery; but even if you wanted to do that (and thought it worth the considerable cost), you'd need to articulate a valid ground for a lawsuit, such as believing your husband was discriminated against on the basis of some characteristic such as race.
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