Q: After 5 months of being on furlough i was randomly and without reason terminated today. Is this legal? Im in California
Back in March at the beginning of the shelter in place me and everybody at the restaurant i work at were furloughed. Just recently our restaurant reopened for patio service only but i was not one of the employees selected to come back. Last week my boss sent out a message on hotschedules (a 3rd party website used to check our schedules) asking people who wants to come back or who wants to stay furloughed, apparently i didn’t answer the question quick enough (even though there was no date listed as to when we must reply) because today i was informed i was fired. They never tried to call or email me or anything.
A:
I am very sorry but there is nothing unlawful about an employer not returning an employee to work because they acted too slowly in responding to the call to return. Your employer had no duty to return you to work at all. And when it is time to return people to work, it can make up any requirements about responding, and can enforce its own rules, even without telling you what they rules are.
Unless you can prove that the reason you were not returned to work is your membership in a protected class of people or because you had engaged in some form of legally protected conduct, you are not going to have a legal claim.
Good luck to you.
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