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Sam1988

New member
Hello, I currently reside in New York State. I have been working for a company for a little over three years. In 2015 I was hired as a temp but a year later gained a part time position without having a drivers license which was a requirement. Can I be terminated later on for not having one even though the company knows I don’t and they hired me anyway?
 


quincy

Senior Member
Hello, I currently reside in New York State. I have been working for a company for a little over three years. In 2015 I was hired as a temp but a year later gained a part time position without having a drivers license which was a requirement. Can I be terminated later on for not having one even though the company knows I don’t and they hired me anyway?
Can you be terminated for not having a driver's license? Probably.
 

xylene

Senior Member
Are you driving in the course of your employment?

If you don't have a license you MUST Stop. Before you get in serious criminal trouble.
 

commentator

Senior Member
You are in an "at will" state, which means you can be fired at any time for about any reason, legally. Even though they hired you without a driver's license (you say, knowing you didn't have one, that's perhaps debatable, maybe no one thought to check?) they can, very legally, fire you at any time, and use as a reason that you do not have a driver's license which the company requires.

Your only recourse would be to file for unemployment insurance to tide you over briefly while you were looking for another job, and try to show that they knowingly hired you, without a driver's license, and then terminated you later, for something that was okay with them for a while, and then was used as an excuse to terminate.

They'll probably, of course, claim they didn't know, and then fired you when they did find out. So if you have any proof that they do know you don't have a license, keep up with it, write down the date and substance of any comments or conversations you have or have had that would show definitely that you have told them you don't have a license and/or the company is aware of it and yet have continued to let you work.

Meantime, I understand that sometimes costs are high, reasons why not are good, and getting a license or getting one reinstated is very difficult, but DON'T drive without one, please. The penalties for that would probably render you unemployed and unable to get future jobs, even if you have transportation to them.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Yes. You can be fired for not having a license even if they knew you didn't have one when you were hired.
 

HRZ

Senior Member
IF you don't have a license I sure would NOT comment about it ...there are no upsides to same !!

Many a paper job description calls for a drivers license ....and in reality there is near zero need to have one ..and as a practical matter if you don't drive to work it's hard to ask you to run an errand 5 miles away w or wo a license .
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
None of which changes the fact that it is legal to require an employee have one, and it is legal to term them for not having one even if they hired him knowing he didn't.

And I sure hope you're not advocating lying about having one if asked, HRZ, because that's a really good way to get fired.
 

commentator

Senior Member
From some of the way the OP posted, it sounded as though the issue of the license already might have come up. No, I do not think he needs to drop into the conversation, "Hey, I don't have a driver's license! That's okay with you guys, right?" at any future time, not what I was recommending. But if he has already mentioned something, or it has come up, been discussed so that he has reason to believe they (at least someone in supervisory position) know he doesn't have a license, he needs to keep up with exactly what he remembers to have been said and why he believes that, and if possible the approximate date(s) this subject was discussed. That would help if he is fired and he files for unemployment benefits.
 

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