Q: Can an employer keep me 'employed' even after my contract has ended and I've stopped working for them?
I worked for an educational org under 2 contracts - an annual full time and an term by term adjunct contract. My full time position was eliminated in July 21 and I continued to work on the adjunct contract that ended on Sept 30, 21. On Sept 28 I was informed that a complaint had been lodged against me with HR and I was being placed on 'paid suspension.' I met with thier lawyer on Oct 4 to discuss the allegations. During this I noted that I no longer worked for the organization, my term by term contract having ended. Last week a depost was made into my account from them followed by a letter saying they had kept me on as a 'paid suspended employee' during Oct and they found the accusations likely to be accurate and so were terminating me as of October 29. Do they have the power to keep me in an employee status after the end of my contract and my overt rejection of an employee status?
A:
Employment in California is not necessarily contractual. Just because a term employment agreement has concluded, you can still be considered an at will employee especially if they kept paying you. You can communicate your intention to quit and they cannot stop you.
Frankly I do not understand your point. Whether you were an employee or not, the employer can do an investigation related to a complaint made against you. If you are not an employee, you have no duty to participate in that investigation, but that will not stop the company from engaging in the investigation. It can still make findings. It can still take action such as termination, or excluding you from the workplace. It can still report you to the authorities.
Perhaps you are concerned that you will now have to report your were terminated from a job in the future. You will have to report truthfully what happened. Know that whatever you report, when the future employer does the background check, it will be told you were terminated and the employer has a plausible explanation to back that up, so be careful.
Good luck to you.
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