Little recourse in NY when you're fired

DEAR CARRIE: I went on two interviews for a management position at a local company. On the second, I was offered the job; so I gave notice at the company where I was working at the time. At my new employer, the general manager I replaced went to a different company, but she said she would keep in touch with me in case I had any questions.

After about 10 days, however, something strange happened. I was told that everything I did had to go through her. Then I received an e-mail that said I should come in on a Monday, my day off, for a short meeting. She entered the office and said, "We have to let you go; it is not working out." I asked if I had done something wrong. She said I hadn't. A few days after I left, I found out that she was back in her old job, the one I was bounced from. I left my former job for that company, only to have my livelihood taken away. Do I have any recourse for this unethical behavior? -- No Job

DEAR NO JOB: You're not alone in experiencing this workplace nightmare.

"It is astounding how often people report this very same experience to me," said employment-rights attorney Alan Sklover, senior partner of Sklover & Donath, a Manhattan law firm. "I can't imagine how so many employers could change their minds in the middle of a hire, with so little concern for the effect [that] doing so inevitably has on employees' lives."

Unfortunately, Sklover said, "There is little, if anything, you can do to get recourse."

That's because New York is, as are so many other states, an employment-at-will state.

" . . . Unless you are one of the very few employees who have an employment contract that guarantees employment for a set period of time -- such as one or two years -- the law considers you to be an at-will employee," Sklover said. "That means that either the employee or the employer can end the employment relation at any time, even one minute before, or one minute after, you start the job."

He noted that court rulings have taken this view: "Since the employment relation can be terminated by either employer or employee at any time, without any notice, neither employer nor employee can have any reasonable expectation of a continuing employment relation. Thus, neither employer nor employee can claim any broken promise, or any damages, if the other stops the relation one minute before or one minute after it starts."

Though the results are often "cruel" for the employee, especially those in your situation, Sklover said, the logic is simple.

That's why Sklover counsels clients to ask for a "mini-contract" to avoid the sudden loss of a new job. The agreement would offer either a guaranteed minimum time on the job, such as three months; a guaranteed minimum notice of termination, such as three months, or a guaranteed severance, such as three months.

If the prospective employer balks at such a contract, it's buyer beware, or seller in this case.

"If the employer you are going to does not grant you one of these three risk limiters, then at least you have just learned something important about this employer," Sklover said. "And what you have learned should be both considered before you resign from your present job, and kept in mind every day you work for your new employer."

 More info: For more on employment at-will: Click here to go to www.labor.ny.gov/workerprotection/laborstandards/faq.shtm

 Click here to read Alan Sklover's blog on working, SkloverWorkingWisdom at skloverworkingwisdom.com/blog/