At Will Employment: They’ll Fire You at Any Time

At-Will Employment

March 19, 2021
8:03 pm

Do you want to start an exciting career at #PUSHBuffalo? If you do, you’re ‘at-will’. They’ll fire you at any time!

At PUSH Buffalo, All Employees Are Considered “at-will.”

What is an at-will employee? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at-will employment means that “an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability. Likewise, an employee is free to leave a job at any time for any or no reason with no adverse legal consequences.”

At PUSH Buffalo, the at-will employment status has been used as a cover and excuse to terminate dozens of employees for reasons that make absolutely no sense, or for no given reason at all. This has been an ongoing practice by the Senior Management Team against employees at PUSH Buffalo for years. Although it is a legal practice if conducted properly, for an organization that preaches jobs and affordable housing for low-income communities, how is this fair? For an organization with a building trades workforce development component known as the PUSH Hiring Hall that supposedly advocates for workers left out of the ‘New Economy’, how does this practice fit in with their stated values and tie in with their stated mission? The reasonable answer is that it doesn’t.

For an organization that fights for worker justice and fairness in the New Economy, ‘at-will’ has been a convenient way to circumvent and sacrifice worker justice at the altar of the religion of social injustice. ‘At-will’ has come to mean for current PUSH employees and many former PUSH employees that; “At any given time, and for any given reason, when we feel like it, we will get rid of you as we see fit.” That sounds like something Amazon, Nike, or Walmart might say or do to their employees. This sounds like something ripped right out of the handbook of the extractive economy. This doesn’t sound like a piece of the framework for a just transition or “putting people first” that PUSH Buffalo constantly talks about. This doesn’t sound like a stance or culture that PUSH Buffalo, which is a member of the New Economy Coalition, should take.

Resources:

Ending At-will Employment: A Guide For Just Cause Reform

Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 842)

Do you have any stories of witnessing or experiencing PUSH’s at-will employment? We want to hear from you! Please reach out to us using the contact form – you can give us your name, or submit your thoughts and stories anonymously. We value your privacy and understand that livelihoods are at stake.