I still keep in contact with a couple of the guys I worked with from my old job. One of em I was pretty good friends with got fired citing insubordination and distraction in the workplace. The woman who is the supervisor is a bitch to the tenth power with a power trip. We have a open door policy at that company it even says it in the rule book and he had a question. Turns out she saw it as him being insubordinate and fired him.



Basically she told him he couldn't clock in even though there was plenty of work to start on. He asked why couldn't he clock in as there was a ton of work to do and it was best to get started on it.(I had this issue with her as well but she never blew a gasket on me like that.) She didn't like that called him in and fired him.





Now reviewing what he told me of the incident I know he has enough evidence to win unemployment benefits but is it pretty difficult to sue for wrongful termination?

 

I have no idea what it takes to win a wrongful termination lawsuit. I assume it would be next to impossible to prove.

In a right to work state, your employer does not need a reason to fire anyone, whether on their probationary period, or otherwise. If you could prove that he was fired for any racial, religious, or reasons related to sexual orientation, then you may have a case, but other than that there isn't anything that can be done.

Yeah--"employment at will" is the issue.  If the employment was "at will", and there's no employment contract, and there's no descrimination (age, sex,whatever constitues a protected group), employement can be terminated by either party for any or no reason.

Did a little research--it's not near as straight forward as I thought.  Wiki has a good explanation of what "employment at will" means and what states allow what, and what exceptions there might be.  Best contact a lawyer.

What does the Supervisors boss have to say about it?  Generally a supervisor doesn't have that ability in most companies.  Did he go in all hot and bothered?, has he been told before what his work hours are?  generally for a person to get fired on a first offense that almost always is a major faux pas on their part, like fighting, racial epithets, major safety violation, major policy violation.

A chat with an employment lawyer might be a good thing, public policy issues may apply in that state.  

Firing is a big deal for both parties, it can be the kiss of death for a professional, especially where they may not be all that many jobs for that profession, even in good times.  Plus the word is going to get out that he was fired.  Plus on the pragmatic side for a company, they now have to replace a trained employee.  In a big company with a even streamlined HR process, that can take up to 2 months, even more if they have to do much of any kind of a search and/or relocation. Plus others have to do his job and theirs, etc

I don't think you got quite the whole story.

Has to be done within 90 days of the firing.

he is fighting a loosing battle.

I was hospitalized in 2009 for a week,passed out and hit my head.Had a concussion ended up with 24 staples in my head.They kepy me to run tests to find out what happened.Never really found anything out though.I called into work the second day I was in and let my employer know what was going on.The first day I was in and out,and really didn't know where I was or why i was there.When I was finally released I called in to tell them that I was out and would be back the following Monday and was told I needed to talk to the GM.When I talked to him he told me I was terminated due to not calling in the first night I missed.I called 4 attornies and not a one would touch it because of "Right To Work"

Is he working under an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement ?

This.

If the employer doesn't have documentation to support the termination, he should be eligible for unemployment (depending on state laws; I don't know Colorado).

Right to work is is a joke. More like a right to fire.

Right to work is not a joke.  In fact it's something completely different than everyone here - with the exception of skipsan - thinks it is.  The stupid is so thick here it hurts.

Do not know the specific laws in CO, but from what you said, in TX, he is SOL on a lawsuit. He outta be able to collect unemployment though.