{"id":5783,"date":"2016-11-23T18:19:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-23T18:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/?p=5783"},"modified":"2016-11-23T18:19:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-23T18:19:21","slug":"public-policy-exception-will-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/blog\/public-policy-exception-will-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Public Policy Exception to At-Will Employment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/attorneys\/joseph-g-ballstaedt\">Joseph G. Ballstaedt<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>In Idaho, almost every employee is an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/mean-will-employee-idaho\/\">at-will employee<\/a>, which means he has no contract with his employer establishing how long the employment relationship will last or limiting why he can be fired. At-will employees can be fired for almost any reason and, conversely, can quit for any reason. Such an arrangement allows<a href=\"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/the-truth-about-at-will-employment\/\"> equal freedom<\/a> to both the employer and the employee.<\/p>\n<p>There is a general exception, however, to an employer\u2019s rights under an at-will employment relationship: an employer cannot fire an employee when motivated by a reason that is against public policy. <em>See MacNeil v. Minidoka Mem\u2019l Hosp.<\/em>, 108 Idaho 588, 589, 701 P.2d 208, 209 (1985). All but a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/opub\/mlr\/2001\/01\/art1full.pdf\">few states<\/a> recognize this exception. Idaho courts have explained that public policy is made of principles that restrict parties\u2019 freedom to contract and privately deal. Such restrictions are for the good of the community; whatever contravenes good morals or any established interests of society is against public policy. <em>See Jackson v. Minidoka Irrigation Dist.<\/em>, 98 Idaho 330, 333, 563 P.2d 54, 57 (1977).<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.racinelaw.net\/blog\/public-policy-exception-will-employment\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading The Public Policy Exception to At-Will Employment\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joseph G. Ballstaedt \u00a0In Idaho, almost every employee is an at-will employee, which means he has no contract with his employer establishing how long the employment relationship will last or limiting why he can be fired. At-will employees can be fired for almost any reason and, conversely, can quit for any reason. Such an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Public Policy Exception to At-Will Employment|Racine Olson<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If an employee believes he was fired for engaging in a protected activity under the public policy exception, he has the burden of proving he was fired for engaging in this activity and not for some other valid reason.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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