Washington state Supreme Court upholds employer's right to fire

THE Washington Supreme Court made the right ruling this week in the case of Briggs v. Nova Services. The court reaffirmed an employer's right to dismiss an employee — a right that is important to running a productive business and a high-wage economy.

The case involved Nova Services, a Spokane nonprofit that helps people with disabilities find jobs. Some managers at Nova went to the board of directors, said the CEO was incompetent and demanded her dismissal.

The board hired an attorney to investigate, and the attorney advised them it could keep either the CEO or two of the managers. The board kept the boss, who fired the two managers. Four other managers and two other employees, who had threatened to quit if this happened, walked out. Later, they filed a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.

These were employees not covered by a contract. The general rule is that the employer can dismiss such employees at will, without having to prove anything to a third party.

There are exceptions. An "at-will" employee can't be fired for certain public things, like how he votes or how he prays. He cannot be fired for organizing a union. But the list of protections is short, and for good reasons. One is that the ability to dismiss an employee lowers the risk of hiring a new one. Employment at will promotes job creation.

Companies may agree to limit their at-will rights by signing labor contracts. That is their business. It is a whole other thing for the courts to do it for everyone, especially on a flimsy case like this.

The Briggs plaintiffs used a line from a law passed in 1933, declaring it to be state policy to protect workers "in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protections."

This vague statement is in the "whereas" section of a law about injunctions and strikes. It had nothing to do with protecting managers who hated their boss.

It is amazing that only five justices — Jim Johnson, Charles Johnson, Gerry Alexander, Barbara Madsen and Richard Sanders — got it right. Susan Owens, Tom Chambers, Debra Stephens and Mary Fairhurst, who sided with the complaining managers, would have made a mess of the labor law of Washington.