Can your company suspend you for something that happened at another facility while working for a different company?
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Can your company suspend you for something that happened at another facility while working for a different company?
I’m an employee of a food vendor at a convention center. I also work with a company that temp staffs at a stadium that is also this vendor’s account. I poured 2 drinks that had too much alcohol and was sent home. Now I’m being suspended for these actions that happened at a different facility while working for a different company. Are they legally able to do this?
Asked on November 8, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Kansas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
The only important question is whether you have an employment contract of some kind (including a union agreement), which limits the reasons you could be suspended or disciplined, or sets out a process which must be followed to discipline you. If so, those terms may be enforced, and the company can only take action in accordance with the contract.
Without an employment agreement, however, you would be an employee at will and could be terminated--or suspended--at any time, for any reason. Therefore, your employer could do this, especially since your actions could affect your employer (you say the stadium is also an account of this employer, which means that doing something wrong at the stadium, even for a different employer, could reflect badly on the food vendor as your employer, too).
Basically, without an employment contract, an employer could choose to suspend (or demote, terminate, etc.) you any time they wanted to.
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