Do I have a case if I am the only employee to get a pay cut and my employer lied about it?

Question Details:

I've been with a company a little over 4 years building houses. I work all areas of job. Then 4 weeks ago today my boss hired his buddy to work for us. My son also worked under me. 1 week after hiring this guy I'm called into the office and told my son is going to be layed off and that I had a choice to be layed off too or to take a $4.50 pay deduct per hour. I was also told that we all were going to lose money due to the economy, except the secretary. I asked on the spot and she said I'm not losing anything. That puzzled me so I snooped and came to find out that I was the only one to lose money. Is there anything that I can do?

Asked 11/12/2009 under Employment and Labor | 180 View(s) | More Legal Topics

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Employment and Labor Law Answers

Unfortunately, you probably do not have any case, unless you have an employment contract restricting or limiting the company's right to fire you or cut your pay. (It doesn't have to be a personal contract; a union or collective bargaining contract would do as well.) The problem is, companies may fire people at will as long as their is no contract (and no discrimination against a protected category--no racial, gender, age, etc. discrmination). They don't have to be fair, and they don't even have to tell  the truth--the company has a right to cut your pay and your pay only, if they choose, and they can be deceitful in what they say about it.

If there is a contract, it'd be a very different outcome--they'd have to honor the contract's terms.

I know that this situation seems unfair but it is probably legal.  Most employment relationships are what is known as "at will".  This means that basically the employer can hire or fire someone for any reason or no reason whatsoever, as well has increase/decrease salary/hours, promote/demote, and generally impose requirements as they see fit.  In turn, you can work for an employer, or not, your choice. 

The only exceptions to the above would be if there is a stated company policy covering this, or there is a union/employment agreement that governs, or this situation has arisen due to some type of discrimination.

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