Employment at will, discrimination and retaliation are the three major terms that govern most employee rights. An understanding of these three terms is important before looking at the Summary of Terms on the next page. The other employment related terms are arranged alphabetically.
EMPLOYMENT AT WILL. North Carolina law strictly follows the idea that most employees are considered employees at will. This means that you can be fired for just about any reason or no reason. You can be the best employee in the company with years of experience and if the boss simply comes to work in a grumpy mood and decides to fire you there may not be much you can do. The key exceptions to employment at will are if you can show discrimination or retaliation or if you signed a written employment contract. Most employees do not have employment contracts and a simple written job offer is rarely viewed as an employment contract.
There is also a very narrow exception to employment at will referred to as the public policy exception. If your boss tells you to violate a law and you refuse and are then fired you may come within this exception. If you refuse to violate the law and then quit you may not be protected.
DISCRIMINATION. The law protects existing employees from discrimination and also protects people who apply for a job from discrimination. An employer generally cannot treat people differently based on age, race, sex, national origin, religion or disability. These are referred to as the “protected classes”. To be protected from age discrimination you must be at least 40 years old and be working at a company that has 20 or more employees. The other protected classes require that you be working at a company that has 15 or more employees. Sometimes race discrimination claims can be brought where there are less than 15 employees.
The key to showing discrimination is to compare yourself with another worker, in the same or similar job, who is being treated differently than you. The more you can rule out other possible reasons for the different treatment the stronger your claim. For example, if you are comparing yourself to another employee you should try to look at the education, experience and seniority of the other person. The company will try to use any major difference in these categories between you and the other person to justify why you are being treated differently.
You must also be able to show that you suffered some harm from the discrimination. The harm can be shown in different ways. For example, being denied a promotion, being fired, getting less pay or less hours or being assigned to a different shift might show that you have suffered harm from the discrimination.
The discrimination laws in North Carolina do not protect people from discrimination because of sexual orientation. If you are gay or lesbian and the boss is discriminating against you it may be time to look for a new job. A company can also discriminate against people who are fat or thin, tall or short unless you can show that your condition is related to a disability. They can discriminate against you if you have tattoos or body piercings or have unusual hair styles unless you can show that it is related to a religious belief. The wearing of certain clothes may be protected if you can show it is related to your religion.
RETALIATION. There are several laws that are intended to protect an employee from retaliation. For example, the discrimination laws say that a company can’t retaliate against you for filing a discrimination claim or for talking to an investigator about a discrimination claim. North Carolina has a law called the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) that protects employees from retaliation for a variety of reasons. For example, an employee who files a complaint about overtime pay or about a safety issue or who is fired because of a work related injury may be protected. A review of the protections under REDA are included in the separate discussion below. Other North Carolina laws protect employees from retaliation for missing work for jury duty or for testifying in an unemployment claim.
Retaliation may take many forms besides being fired. A company may retaliate against you by cutting your hours, assigning you to a different shift, giving you different work assignments or cutting your pay. The key is to show that the retaliation, whatever form it takes, is related to an action by you that is protected under the law. Simply saying that my supervisor is retaliating against me because I told his boss about a mistake he made probably is not enough to protect you from retaliation.