ABA Family Legal Guide

Law and the Workplace

Leaving a Job

Being Fired

Can employers fire employees without worrying about legal consequences?

It depends. In the United States, most employees are considered employees at will. This means that they have no written contract that governs the length of their employment or the reasons for which they may be fired. The employer is free to lay off or fire such employees with no notice and for no reason.

Not all employees, however, are employees at will. Unionized employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement usually cannot be fired "at will." Their contracts normally provide that they can be terminated only for just cause (that is, for a cause that a person of ordinary intelligence would consider a fair and reasonable justification for dismissal). Moreover, the grievance mechanism contained in most collective bargaining agreements provides a process by which union employees can challenge their firing. (For a fuller discussion of union protections, see page 440, "Unions in the Workplace.")