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EagleLegal
Guest
Hired, then Laid off a Month Later. It Happens... But Should it Happen Like This?
State: New Jersey
A friend of my mine, after over a year and a half of looking in vain, finally found a new full-time job. The pay wasn't as good as he once enjoyed, but hey... a job's a job, right?. So needless to say, he was happier than a pig in... slop to have finally found work.
Anyhow, as he started the job, he learned that the company (a manufacturing and distribution company) was in the process of moving from one location to another. So until things got settled, he would mostly be helping to move their inventory from one warehouse to another. While the work was hard, he was happy to have found it and even happier to be earning overtime pay. He was assured things wouldn't be so grueling once the move was finished, but he didn't mind. In fact, he was thrilled with the extra work and money. Now here's the catch...
Eventually, of course, the move was finished and he continued in the job he'd been hired to do. He received no complaints nor disciplinary action, no indication that his work performance was a problem. So it came as something of a surprise, not to mention a devastating disappointment, when he was called over to "the office" at around mid-day on a Friday to be told that he was being let go. It wasn't a punitive measure, he was assured; they just didn't need him anymore. He wasn't alone, either... about 20 employees, in total, were let go at the same time; all of them recent hires. And while there are any number of reasons why a manufacturing company would have to let employees go in this economy, it seems like a little more than a tinfoil-hat theory that they hired a bunch of people to assist in the move (without telling them as much) and then proceeded to let them go when it was finished. If this is the case, is this legal?
Had he been hired on the grounds of it being a one-month contract job helping the company make their move, this wouldn't even be an issue, of course. But that's not the case. He was hired as a permanent full-timer, complete with the promise of medical benefits and a 401k pension plan (neither of which had yet kicked in, of course). And then he was let go exactly one month later, too soon for him to even go apply for unemployment again (that requires 20 weeks of employment in NJ).
Now this friend is incredibly unlikely to pursue this matter, even if he had legal recourse; but for my own information, I want to know if this type of hiring and termination is legal.
Thanks for any information you can provide,
EagleLegal
State: New Jersey
A friend of my mine, after over a year and a half of looking in vain, finally found a new full-time job. The pay wasn't as good as he once enjoyed, but hey... a job's a job, right?. So needless to say, he was happier than a pig in... slop to have finally found work.
Anyhow, as he started the job, he learned that the company (a manufacturing and distribution company) was in the process of moving from one location to another. So until things got settled, he would mostly be helping to move their inventory from one warehouse to another. While the work was hard, he was happy to have found it and even happier to be earning overtime pay. He was assured things wouldn't be so grueling once the move was finished, but he didn't mind. In fact, he was thrilled with the extra work and money. Now here's the catch...
Eventually, of course, the move was finished and he continued in the job he'd been hired to do. He received no complaints nor disciplinary action, no indication that his work performance was a problem. So it came as something of a surprise, not to mention a devastating disappointment, when he was called over to "the office" at around mid-day on a Friday to be told that he was being let go. It wasn't a punitive measure, he was assured; they just didn't need him anymore. He wasn't alone, either... about 20 employees, in total, were let go at the same time; all of them recent hires. And while there are any number of reasons why a manufacturing company would have to let employees go in this economy, it seems like a little more than a tinfoil-hat theory that they hired a bunch of people to assist in the move (without telling them as much) and then proceeded to let them go when it was finished. If this is the case, is this legal?
Had he been hired on the grounds of it being a one-month contract job helping the company make their move, this wouldn't even be an issue, of course. But that's not the case. He was hired as a permanent full-timer, complete with the promise of medical benefits and a 401k pension plan (neither of which had yet kicked in, of course). And then he was let go exactly one month later, too soon for him to even go apply for unemployment again (that requires 20 weeks of employment in NJ).
Now this friend is incredibly unlikely to pursue this matter, even if he had legal recourse; but for my own information, I want to know if this type of hiring and termination is legal.
Thanks for any information you can provide,
EagleLegal
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