The North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act is not the best statute to help employees. Federal laws can be better for wrongful termination cases according to North Carolina attorney, Kathryn Abernethy. Does that mean people in North Carolina are just out of luck if they got fired? Attorney Abernethy says that isn’t the case. This is part of a weekly series where Kathryn Abernethy discusses employment law. For more videos in the series, please click here. You may also read the transcription below.
Transcription: How Does North Carolina Equal Employment Practices Act Work with Federal Anti Discrimination Law?
The North Carolina EEPA is basically a toothless statute that the legislature ripped all of the enforcement power out of it. I want to say back in 2010 or 2011.
So now we have no way of enforcing it directly other than one. One way that it does get enforced a little bit is that if somebody is terminated and they have to be terminated, they can’t be constructively discharged and they can’t have quit, they have to absolutely be terminated.
If they’ve been terminated, That tort of wrongful termination and violation of public policy will allow you to reference back at the NCEPA as the source of the state public policy that’s been violated.
So, the language of the NCEPA still now that is still good law says that it’s public policy in North Carolina not to discriminate against employees in settings where the employer has more than 15 employees on the basis of sex, race, religion, etcetera.
It’s basically, I think of it like a mini Title 7 sort of public policy statement, but it only applies if you’ve been terminated for your sex, your race, your religion, etc.
So that’s the only way you can reach that public policy that’s articulated there in the form of a civil suit. And there you’re doing it as part of a tort. A tort claim that you’re serving.
