Possible wrongful termination

[Conthesnow]

What is the name of your state? CA

I am asking for my husband. He is a custom picture framer/manager of a franchise. This past Sunday, the shop was destroyed by a fire. On Monday, after the owner, his wife and my husband met with the necessary people to discuss the situation, an argument erupted between the owner's wife and my husband while they were loading our truck with leftover items from the shop to take to their home. She snapped at my husband and he snapped back, needless to say, it didn't seem to go well. He left to cool off and a couple of hours later, he left her a message and apologized, even though it was clearly her fault. He hasn't heard from them since. During that argument, he asked them if he was fired and they said no, but she is a spiteful women and has the owner by the you-know-what, so we don't know what to think. Seeing that we don't even know if his wages would be covered in something like this, we wanted to find out what his rights are if they fire him. Please help!!!

Thanks,

Conthesnow

 

[pattytx]

Unless your husband is fired for an illegal reason, such as because of gender, nationality, religion, etc., there is no case of wrongful termination here. Other than that, the employer is free to terminate the employment relationship at any time for any (not illegal) reason, just as the employee is
free to quit at any time and for any reason at all. It is not illegal for an employer to be a jerk (although we don't know the details of the argument) and, conversely, it is not a good idea for an employee to get into an argument with the owner of the company that may have just been permanently destroyed due to the fire.

Now, if your husband is let go due to no work available because of the fire (or even if he is fired for some other reason), he should file for unemployment benefits. The state agency will decide whether he would receive benefits. If this is a small of a company as it sounds, they probably do not have wage or business continuation insurance that would continue to pay his wages.

Good Luck.