BISAC and explaining the ‘at-will’ law
As I read the Nov. 29 front page article about Big Island Substance Abuse Council being sued by a former employee, I was encouraged to write a letter that’s long overdue.
I’ve personally witnessed employers bullying and intimidating their employees into looking the other way when observing illegal and unethical practices in the workplace. These employers seem to think that by Hawaii being an “at-will” state, they have complete freedom to lie, mismanage funds, abuse employees and run an organization on fear and greed. For readers unfamiliar with the meaning of “at-will,” it basically means that an employer does not need good cause to fire you. In essence, a good-standing worker can be fired simply because the employer doesn’t like the employee’s face anymore. As the law reads, the only caveats are that an at-will employee cannot be fired if he complained about illegal activity, discrimination or harassment, health and safety violations in the workplace, the right to take family and medical leave or the right to serve in the military or jury duty.
Some employers avoid these caveats by laying off (rather than firing) an employee. They’ll use terms like downsizing or reorganizing to get rid of an employee, then wait a few weeks to refill the position using a different job title. Nonprofits are the worst culprits because the governing board of directors is often comprised of community volunteers who meet perhaps just once a month to hear what the executive director wants them to hear. If the executive director excels at duping people, and the board is gullible, well, you can easily see the potential for mismanaged and dysfunctional organizations.
In this tough job market, employees are thankful just to have a job. But that doesn’t mean that employers can abuse their workers. I don’t know all the specifics to the BISAC case, but I applaud the terminated employee and West Hawaii Today for shining a light on this issue.
And I hope that other Hawaii employers take note. There’s a lot to be said for forward-thinking business practices such as coaching and using progressive disciplinary steps with an employee who’s not performing. But wrongfully firing an employee and hoping they’ll quietly slink off into the night is naive on a small island where the coconut wireless is almost as powerful as social media. Abusive employers should remember that shooting the messenger can backfire into a front-page story.
Michael Gold
Kailua-Kona