North Carolina employment law attorney Kathryn Abernethy discusses whether North Carolina is an employment at-will state. The short answer is, yes it is. What does that mean? It essentially means that your employer can fire you for any reason at any time, but you do have some protections. Attorney Abernethy helps explain what protections you have in North Carolina even with it being an employment at-will state. This is part of our ongoing series where Kathryn talks all facets of North Carolina employment law. For more of her videos, click here. You may also read the transcription below.
Transcription: Is North Carolina an Employment At-Will State?
North Carolina is an employment at will state, meaning that your employer can terminate your employment at any time for any reason. As long as they are not violating any other federal or state statute in the course of that termination, the courts are going to say it’s valid.
Now there are a couple of exceptions to this.
One is, and this is very rare, if you happen to have an employment contract that has a term of years specified in it, courts will say you’re not an at-will employee. You’re under a contract for a term of years that puts you outside employment will.
But short of that, most employees in North Carolina are going to be classified as at-will employees.
And unless you can show that your termination violated a particular state or federal statute, that the assumption is it’s going to be deemed a valid termination.
