Not only this, but he's demanding people work 12+ hour days through weekends or get fired "for cause".
He's doing everything he can to make layoffs happen without actually laying people off, which sure seems like he's trying to evade California's 60 day warning for layoffs.
I suspect we'll see him in court over how this was handled.
Up to but not including "constructive dismissal". The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC) provides a three part test to evaluate constructive dismissal[1]:
1. a reasonable person in the complainant's position would have found the working conditions intolerable
2. conduct that constituted discrimination against the complainant created the intolerable working conditions
3. the complainant's involuntary resignation resulted from the intolerable working conditions
The test isn't necessarily something we would be able to make a definitive decision on here. It is intended to be used in the courtroom where each component would be necessary to establish constructive dismissal and evidence for and contrary to each point would be presented to a judge/jury.
As you can rightly assume "reasonable", "intolerable", and "discrimination" are doing a lot of heavy lifting, and I'd expect and decision to rest on what constitutes "reasonable", "intolerable", and "discrimination".
There's already a class action suit underway regarding Tesla's mass constructive dismissal, so it'll be really interesting to see all this go down. In the US, there are two things to consider: legality, and lawsuits. Regardless of legality, you can still drown in lawsuits.
Yes. The set of conditions that make it illegal to fire somebody in the US are very very small. "I need everybody to crunch 80 hour weeks for months and months" is a thing employers can do for most forms of white collar knowledge work.
The department of labor does. Even here in Idaho it's amazing how excited the legal team gets when sent a letter of inquiry from the DoL. I imagine they have more teeth in CA.
Comments
Not only this, but he's demanding people work 12+ hour days through weekends or get fired "for cause".
He's doing everything he can to make layoffs happen without actually laying people off, which sure seems like he's trying to evade California's 60 day warning for layoffs.
I suspect we'll see him in court over how this was handled.
I guess the question is, what are the limits on how you treat existing employees to avoid laws regarding layoffs by forcing a mass exodus?
Up to but not including "constructive dismissal". The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission(EEOC) provides a three part test to evaluate constructive dismissal[1]:
1. a reasonable person in the complainant's position would have found the working conditions intolerable
2. conduct that constituted discrimination against the complainant created the intolerable working conditions
3. the complainant's involuntary resignation resulted from the intolerable working conditions
The test isn't necessarily something we would be able to make a definitive decision on here. It is intended to be used in the courtroom where each component would be necessary to establish constructive dismissal and evidence for and contrary to each point would be presented to a judge/jury.
As you can rightly assume "reasonable", "intolerable", and "discrimination" are doing a lot of heavy lifting, and I'd expect and decision to rest on what constitutes "reasonable", "intolerable", and "discrimination".
1. https://federalemployeelawblog.com/2017/07/10/constructive-d...
When it crosses the line into "constructive dismissal"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal#United_...
Question from Europe: Is that actually legal in the US? :-O
possibly not - but we're all so brainwashed it wouldn't occur to us to question it ... work hard play hard!
There's already a class action suit underway regarding Tesla's mass constructive dismissal, so it'll be really interesting to see all this go down. In the US, there are two things to consider: legality, and lawsuits. Regardless of legality, you can still drown in lawsuits.
Yes. The set of conditions that make it illegal to fire somebody in the US are very very small. "I need everybody to crunch 80 hour weeks for months and months" is a thing employers can do for most forms of white collar knowledge work.
no, but do you have the funds to prove the point?
The department of labor does. Even here in Idaho it's amazing how excited the legal team gets when sent a letter of inquiry from the DoL. I imagine they have more teeth in CA.