By Lars Lonnroth
MACON, Ga. — Despite warnings by Emergency Management Agency directors to stay off the roads, some Central Georgia businesses stayed open, putting some employees in a tough spot.
Some employees asked, how do you make it to work safely when, in some cases, icy road conditions make the trip hazardous?
In the aftermath of the storm, we received many questions from employees asking whether they had the right not to show up due to once-in-a-decade snow conditions.
So we decided to VERIFY.
The question:
Can an employer fire employees for not showing up to work due to winter weather and road conditions?
The answer:
Yes, bosses can fire most employees for not showing up during winter weather in Georgia, but there are exceptions.
Our sources:
Constance Cooper, Barrett & Farahany.
Tyler Kaspers, Kaspers Law Firm
University of Georgia
Truckers Justice Center
U.S. Department of Labor website
What we found:
Georgia is considered a so-called “Right to Work” and “At Will” state, which — by and large — means employers can fire or hire someone for whatever reasons they want, according to attorney Constance Cooper with Barrett & Farahany.
Because of that, the cards are stacked against employees when it comes to wrongful termination, including during historic and dangerous weather conditions.
“Generally in the United States, and particularly in the states of Alabama and Georgia, there are very few protections for workers,” Cooper said. “Workers can be fired for any reason — except for an illegal reason.”
Those illegal reasons generally stem from certain “protected” activity or characteristics, explicitly laid out under the law. Those protections typically hinge on discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability and/or genetics.
An employee who files a complaint with the U.S. Department of Labor has additional protections as well. According to the department’s website, if an employee can prove their firing was actually retaliation for filing a complaint, that’s illegal.
But other than that, Cooper says employers don’t have to have a good reason to fire an employee. The decision is completely in their hands.
“If an employer’s actions were not based on one of those protected characteristics that a person has, generally [an employee] can be terminated because, ‘Hey, I don’t like the shirt you’re wearing today – that’s not my style,’” Cooper said.
Other states, like Illinois, California, New York and others, have enacted additional protections for workers. But in Georgia and Alabama, Cooper says that is not the case.
“There’s no distinction between a valid reason and a bad reason for firing you; they can fire you for something absolutely ridiculous, that’s absolutely unfair,” Cooper said.
Under Georgia law, she says it is essentially “too bad, so sad. Go home.”
Because of that, an employer can fire most employees for not showing up to work during a snowstorm, Cooper said.
But Cooper says that if employers apply that policy unevenly due to “protected characteristics” like race, color, sex, age or disability, that can still be grounds for wrongful termination.
“Look at who is being called in, look at who is being penalized for not coming in, and just look and see how that policy is being applied differently depending on who the person is,” Cooper said.
If an employer is asking employees to come in, she encourages employees to outline the reasons they believe the road conditions are unsafe, acting as their own “advocate.”
Cooper says making employees show up to work during dangerous conditions could open up employer liability in different areas, such as if you were injured — or worse, Cooper said.
“If God forbid, something were to happen to you, your family would have that,” Cooper said. “If God forbid you were simply injured, you would have that.”
She says an attorney could bring a worker’s compensation claim if it happened on the job or potentially file a lawsuit if an employee was hurt on the way to work.
“You want to help change their mind, but then you want to document just in case,” Cooper said.
While Cooper says it could be difficult to prove the employer’s negligence caused the crash, she says documentation could still open up a potential legal avenue.
Truck drivers are also protected from retaliation for refusing to drive in “sufficiently dangerous” conditions. That stems from The United States Code of Federal Regulations, which bans driving a “commercial motor vehicle… until the commercial motor vehicle can be safely operated.”
According to the Truckers Justice Center, a refusal must be reasonable and a driver has to articulate to the court the facts of why they believe conditions are unsafe.
But yes, an employer can fire most employees for not showing up to work during hazardous conditions, but there are exceptions.