Q: I understand IN is an at-will employment state. Can an employer legally fire you to cover up a mistake made on their end
My spouse was an independent contractor for a RV transportation company. The opportunity came for my spouse to get involved in hotshot transportation. He brought the idea to the owner/manager of the company. The owner/manager agreed it was a good idea and approved my husband doing the work under the company’s authority. For 2 weeks my husband found and ran loads that were approved and signed off by the company. Last week he received a call from the company’s safety department informing him that “he was not legal”. My husband had just gone through a DOT checkpoint in CA without an issue, and the load he was towing was approved and signed off as legit by the company prior to him taking it. They ended up canceling his contract with them. My spouse has records of the loads approved AND emails from the company directing him where to look for loads to transport. Was this legal?
A: Unfortunately, there is nothing inherently unlawful about your spouse's termination, since employees can be terminated for any reason or for no reason at all in at-will states. However, the one exception to this rule is if your spouse believes they were targeted for termination due to a discriminatory reason (i.e. based on race, sex, age, disability).
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