(Learn more about wrongful termination in the context of COVID-19.)Įvery state's laws on wrongful termination are different. because you filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits for COVID-19.because you have a preexisting condition (including your age) that makes you more vulnerable to the coronavirus or.for taking family or medical leave under state or federal law, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) (discussed below).for refusing to violate a legal shelter-in-place order.for refusing to work because you had a reasonable belief that you faced an immediate risk of death or serous physical harm due to unsafe working conditions.in retaliation after you complained about or reported unsafe working conditions, such as inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing, or cleaning.For example, it would generally be illegal for your employer to fire you: But what if you were fired for reasons related to the novel coronavirus? Depending on the reason you were let go, you might have a valid claim for wrongful termination. Of course, most job losses during the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted from layoffs. What If You Were Illegally Fired During the Coronavirus Pandemic? For example, if your Nebraska employer fires you for discriminatory reasons, in violation of an employment contract, or in retaliation for exercising your rights, you may have a legal claim against your employer. This means an employee can generally be fired at any time and for any reason, or for no reason at all.īut there are some exceptions to the at-will rule. In Nebraska, as in other states, employees work at will. The third-party employer is responsible for ensuring that travel time from job site to job site is paid.Have you recently lost your job? If so, you might be wondering whether you have grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit. However, travel from job site to job site during the workday, such as travel between several clients during the workday, is compensable hours worked. Brown while at the airport or during the flight or must be available to assist or help as needed, he is working and must be compensated for this time.ĭirect care workers who are employed by a third-party employer: Such an employee who travels from home to work and returns to his or her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel that is not compensable work time. WHD will not consider the flight time as compensable hours because it is time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane if John is completely relieved from duty. Brown's daughter takes her to the airport where they meet John for the flight at 6:00 pm. Brown attends a conference in New York City and John accompanies her by plane. However, periods where the employee is completely relieved from duty, which are long enough to enable him or her to use the time effectively for his or her own purposes, are not hours worked and need not be compensated.Įxample: John is a personal attendant for Mrs. For example, an employee who is required to travel as a passenger with the consumer "as an assistant or helper" and is expected to perform services as needed is working even though traveling outside of the employee's regular work hours. However, the employee must be paid for all hours engaged in work or "engaged to wait" while on travel. As an enforcement policy, WHD will not consider as work time the time the employee spends as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus or automobile when in travel away from home outside of regular working hours. Thus, if an employee hired to provide home care services to an individual (consumer) accompanies that consumer on travel away from home, the employee must be paid for all time spent traveling during the employee's regular working hours. The employee is merely substituting travel for other duties. Travel away from the home is clearly work time when it cuts across the employee's workday. Barbara is working and the travel time must be paid. Barbara drives him to the Post Office and grocery store during the workday. Travel that is all in a day's work, however, is considered hours worked and must be paid.Įxample: Barbara is a personal care aide providing assistance to Mr. For live-in workers, home-to-work travel that is typically unpaid does not apply in this case because the employee begins and ends his or her workday at the same home in which he or she resides. This is true whether the employee works at a fixed location or at a different location each day. Normal travel from home to work and return at the end of the workday is not work time. A worker who travels from home to work and returns to his or her home at the end of the workday is engaged in ordinary home-to-work travel which is a normal incident of employment.
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