Board op firing ...

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 4 Nov 2006 at 7:04, marklaurence@mac.com wrote:

>  On Saturday, November 04, 2006, at 07:56AM, "radiotony"
>  <radiotony@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> >Lastly, Massachusetts is not an at-will employment state, so WRKO
> >can't just firing someone without just cause. If they don't have that
> >just cause spelled out, I think it is safe to say they might have a
> >problem here. 
> 
> I've always thought Massachusetts did follow at-will employment law,
> and this page from boston.com seems to agree:
 
We do have employment at will in Massachusetts.  But every contract 
contains a covenant of "good faith and fair dealing," which sometimes 
means that the courts will step in on a wrongful firing.  This more 
likely happens over financial issues, and while the courts won't 
order someone reinstated, they may award money damages.  

The classic situation was when an at-will employee was fired just 
before certain pension rights were about to vest, or an employee was 
fired to prevent him from qualifying for commissions he has earned.  
I'm not so sure the board op would have a case here unless there was 
an explicit contractual provision that was violated.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
 15 Court Square, Suite 210                 Fax 617.742.7581
Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         http://www.attorneyross.com