What are my rightrs if I may be terminated due to a DUI conviction but my employer is still employing another manager with the same type of conviction?
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What are my rightrs if I may be terminated due to a DUI conviction but my employer is still employing another manager with the same type of conviction?
I was pulled over for a DUI 4 months ago but. I haven’t been convicted yet. However, my employer has suspended me without pay until the matter is resolved. It is telling me that if I do get convicted I will be terminated. This is because 2 years ago I signed a DOT policy that the company rolled out for all DOT drivers. I was not aware that this policy is for management too, of which I happen to be. It’s a policy that they rolled out but not all managers are or required to be DOT. My company also has another manager with the same job title as myself who has a DUI conviction on his recorded and is still being employed by them. Is this right? I’ve worked for this company for 15 years and never thought a big company lwould do this.
Asked on March 27, 2012 under Employment Labor Law, California
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
It is most likely legal:
1) You indicate that you signed the policy under which they terminated you--your agreement to that policy is enforceable, even if you did not know that it applied to managers like yourself (you could have sought clarification of that, had you wanted; the law does not exempt people from agreements they sign or enter into simply because they did not understand their obligations under them).
2) The law does not generally require employers to treat employees the same--for example, as long as an employer is not discriminating on the basis of some protected characteristic (e.g. on the basis of race, religion, age over 40, sex or disability), an employer could terminate employee A for doing something which employee B also did.
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