Monday, January 7, 2008

RE: [BDSM-LegalIssues] You did, didn't you, say the following, 'tongue in cheek', RIGHT? WAS: Re: New b

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lochai
> Sent: Monday, January 07, 2008 5:06 PM

> Denis,
>
> Very good points you make here & have made in the past.
>
> What if you were wrong & had a wrongful termination suit
> brought against you because you fired someone upon their
> arrest instead of waiting till the courts did their duty and
> it was just a case of mistaken identity or a spiteful spouse?
> This could be more devastating to your business than waiting
> till the outcome.

Lochai,

"Employment at will" means just what it says. An employer can fire you
because they don't like your hair style!

While "wrongful termination" suits certainly exist, they exist for a very
limited number of circumstances:

1. Where there's a specific agreement between the employer and employee,
frequently via a union, or via a contract of employment.

2. Where there's specific legislation involved (e.g. regarding maternity
leave).

Neither situation applies generally; they are exceptions, rather than rules.

> Accused teachers are put on district duty until conviction
> (in some states, depending on the circumstances), police
> officers are put on desk duty till their internal
> investigation is complete.

Unionized and unionized!

> I would imagine other businesses
> & occupations do the same because they are willing to concede
> that the arrest just may be wrong or the accusations just may
> be wrong.

Indeed. And businesses aren't in general stupid, so if you're a good
employee it's generally in their interest to retain you.

But not all employees are good, and in other cases the cost to find and
train a replacement is relatively minor.

> Just as long as you also figure the possible
> consequence of making the wrong decision could destroy both
> the ex employees future as well as your own business as well
> as the future of your own employees.

That's unlikely. Absent a union agreement on the matter, the reality is
that the greatest downside that an employer faces is the cost of hiring and
training a replacement, which is a cost that most employers have some handle
on. The downside if they make the wrong decision in NOT firing the arrestee
is much harder to quantify (loss of business due to adverse publicity,
disruption caused by concern in the workplace, potential litigation from
other employees, suppliers and customers over the risk to them of retaining
the arrested individual, etc.)

Sure, it's socially unjust, but that's capitalism for you.

> Now to bring this back to BDSM... If an arrest record talks
> about the flyer/toys etc that were found in the trunk of the
> arrested persons car when they were pulled over, regardless
> of the person's innocence, just the relationship to BDSM
> could destroy their job because of what it is they were
> doing. Is this right? No but it may not be the reason for
> the arrest that is their downfall but the "outing" that
> happened because of it.

That's rarer, because property inventories are less prone to public
scrutiny.

Malc.

__._,_.___
Community email addresses:
  Post message: BDSM-LegalIssues@onelist.com
  Subscribe:    BDSM-LegalIssues-subscribe@onelist.com
  Unsubscribe:  BDSM-LegalIssues-unsubscribe@onelist.com
  List owner:   BDSM-LegalIssues-owner@onelist.com

Shortcut URL to this page:
  http://www.onelist.com/community/BDSM-LegalIssues
Recent Activity
Visit Your Group
Popular Y! Groups

Is your group one?

Check it out and

see.

Yahoo! Groups

Endurance Zone

b/c every athlete

needs an edge.

Yahoo! Groups HD

The official Samsung

Y! Group for HDTVs

and devices.

.

__,_._,___

posted by Annja Sue at 6:48 PM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home