Wrongful termination question

[matjal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Massachusetts
Can a company terminate an employee based on "hearsay" allegations?; allegations made by subordinates who had motivation to retaliate against their supervisor...

 

[cbg]

Yes. Hearsay only matters in a court of law and not always then.

Now, do you want to give us some facts?

 

[matjal]

Wrongful termination

A subordinate left the company and falsified allegations against her supervisor...she then got existing employees; all with potential motivation to take issue with the supervisor to make similar or completely unrelated but still, untrue allegations against him...several of the people in the investigation either flat out lied or changed their story...the supervisor's story is unchanged...the allegations relate to the supervisor making vulgar or derogatory statements against another senior member - one stating that the supervisor made a comment - another stating the supervisor heard a comment and didn't react to it - in both cases the incident supposedly happened months ago but had never been surfaced in any forum - except when the disgruntled employee left the company and surfaced the issues

 

[cbg]

Just FYI, a wrongful termiation does not mean that you were fired for something you didn't do; it means that you were fired for a reason prohibited by law.

If the employer chooses to believe the employees over the supervisor, that is almost certainly not a wrongful termination, even if it might be unfair.

Just to be absolutely certain, what is the reason the employees "are motivated" to lie about the supervisor?

 

[matjal]

Wrongful termination

One employee is a performance issue, one is upset that she was not chosen for promotion...

 

[cbg]

That's not going to do it. Sorry, but this simply is not a wrongful termination no matter how much you want it to be one. It may be unfair, it may be unjustified, but it is not wrongful (illegal) in the legal sense.

 

[matjal]

Wrongful termination

One employee is a performance issue, one is upset that she was not chosen for promotion...
is there any recourse against the people making the false allegations in terms of defamation of character?

 

[cbg]

The problem in a defamation claim would be to prove that they did not honestly believe what they were saying. People do misunderstand things; they mis-hear a statement, or hear one person say something and honestly believe that it was said by someone else. They also put a differing interpretation on something that WAS said, than may have been intended.

Unless the supervisor believes that s/he can prove to the satisfaction of a court of law that none of these things could POSSIBLY have happened (and it would be his/her burden of proof to meet), I'm not seeing any legal action getting anywhere.

And does the supervisor really think it would be to his/her advantage to have the fact of this occurrance made public?