Possible lawsuit? Fired for political affiliation?

ctgretzky99

A group of us were arguing over the legitimacy of being able to fire an employee due to their political affiliation. The spark for this discussion is the letter below. Not sure if the letter was real, but in any case, it brought up an interesting discussion....

What are your thoughts on this? Could these employees sue? Can you REALLY fire someone for these reasons?

Some have argued that a private sector owner can fire someone over this with no repercussions. I say its a lawsuit.

"LETTER FROM THE BOSS......

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way. To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%.
But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off six of our employees instead. This has really been bothering me, since I believe we are family here and I didn't know how to choose who would have to go.

So, this is what I did. I walked through our parking lot and found six 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees' cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go. I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change, and I gave it to them.

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic."

Broccoli B · Posted: May 29, 2009 5:42 am Post subject:

It depends what state you live it, some states it is legal, some it is not.

finkle · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 4067

didn't we go through this exact same topic a few weeks or months ago?

Hollywood · Posted: May 29, 2009 9:45 am Post subject:

isn't this wakeboarder.com?

ky1e · Wakeboarder.com Freak Joined: 31 Mar 2008 Posts: 2693

Sounds pretty illegal to me, but I know nothing about the legal system.

Wake Trakker · Outlaw Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 139

I worked for a Public company for 14 years. We had a layoff every year, or damn close. The fact is layoffs are good for the economy. Keep the good employees and get rid of the fat. This increases productivity. The economy is not Obama's fault, or Bush's fault for that matter.

As far as a lawsuit, there should be one. Private companies get away with murder when it comes to worker/equal rights. I see so many companies that hire only their own race in my industry and I am not isolating just one race. They all do it. You should only be able to make decisions about an employee for professional reasons. Nothing to do with his or her race, religion, sex, age or political affiliation.

In this case the employer missed out on an opportunity to get rid of less productive employees instead of satisfying his political bias. In the end he will get screwed by somebody that tells him he agrees with his politics, but at the same time is costing him time and money slacking on the job. It' just not a good business decision.

$.02