is this legal termination

[sunset133]

My son was fired from his job of 1.5 years in February. His foreman walked up to him and told him, "you don't look like you want to be here, I don't like your attitude, pack up your things and leave. When he filed for unemployment benefits this foreman gave the cause of termination as he was reading Playboy magazine several days before. The magazine was not his, it was brought to the job site by another employee, besides that the foreman who fired him was looking at it as well. The employment office found this was not reasonable terms for termination and granted him his benefits without penalty.

Does he have grounds for an unlawful termination suit? We live in the state of Washington. The foreman who terminated him had been in several loud verbal disputes with employees other than my son during the course of a new ownership transition. There was no verbal confrontation between my son and this man, my son just left. This foreman was also subsequently terminated after 15 years of employment and not long after my son was fired. I do not know why.

wondering mother

 

[buddy2bear]

Unless your son is a member of a union or has an employment contract, he is considered at-will and can be terminated at any time for any reason, except the standard -- race, sex, national origin, gender, etc.

Unemployment compensation laws basically favor the x-employee, which means that unless a company can prove "misconduct" or "gross misconduct" chances are an employee will be able to collect unemployment compensation.

When new ownership comes into a company, after a short period of time, they start to "clean house" and management positions usually are filled with their own people. Quite possibly, if the above is not the reason, the foreman of 15 years might have been let go because he was making too much money and a new foreman might not be as expensive, or his management style might not be what the new owners wanted.

Now that this foreman is gone, your son could reapply for the job and see where that takes him.