fired for falsication of employment application

[mrs1637]

What is the name of your state? NJ

This is a case of you cant fire me, I quit.
As a probationary employee he was told he would not be retained after his probationary period was over. In lieu of this he submitted a letter of resignation, finished his probationary period (3 weeks) and then left. On his current jobs application was the question "have you ever been terminated or forced to resign". He answered the question as no as he didnt feel that not being retained off probation was considered termination. He also listed that employer along with supervisors name and telephone number on the app. There are notes in the margin that indicate someone called and spoke to the supervisor when doing the reference check. This all took place in 1986. Now in 2002 they say that he lied on his application and is being terminated. Is there any recourse in this? Can employers pull things out of their hat 15 years later?

 

[Beth3]

Generally, falsifying information on your application or resume has been upheld repeatedly by the courts as just cause to terminate an employee.

I do recall reading something several years ago about a specific case similar to this. Because the falsification was minor, the instance occurred a significant numer of years ago and was irrelevant to the ee's position and performance, it was not relevant. Keep in mind though that this decision was relative to, I believe, a discrimination suit the former employee was bringing. The ee claimed he was fired for a prohibited (discriminatory) reason, the employer countered they term'd because they discovered the ee has falsified info on his application. The judge ruled the application issue was irrelevant for the above reasons and allowed the discrimination suit to proceed.

In an of itself, term'ing an ee because they lied on their application 15 years ago is legal. As an "at will" employee, an individual can be terminated for any reason, as long as it's not a prohibited reason. such as an ee's race, gender, religion, in retalliation for filing a worker's comp claim, etc.