HR Specialist: North Carolina Employment Law

Complex state and local laws in the Tar Heel State can give employers the blues. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This North Carolina-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: North Carolina Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...

Employers that end up violating the FMLA—unintentionally or not—don’t face an additional problem under North Carolina law.

The supposed problem: At-will employees in North Carolina can sue their employers if they’re terminated and the discharge violates public policy.

Why it’s not a problem: Fortunately, failing to follow the intricacies of federal laws and regulations doesn’t violate public policy.

Recent case: Gwen Herndon sued her former employer, TIAA-CREF, for allegedly failing to comply with the FMLA. Her attorneys also added a state claim of wrongful discharge, arguing that by violating the FMLA, TIAA-CREF destroyed its right to fire Herndon without a good reason. Firing her, they argued, violated public policy.

The court disagreed and dismissed the case. (Herndon v. TIAA-CREF Individual and Institutional Services, No. 3:09-CV-120, WD NC, 2009)

Final note: You may wonder why attorneys try to sue employers under so many different theories and why they often tack on state claims. More claims in the same case means that the case becomes more expensive for the employer. That, the employee’s attorneys think, may make it more likely the employer will agree to settle the case.

But the main reason is that, by trying different claims, they multiply the chance that one will stick. Plus, some federal laws have limits on the amount of money an employee can collect, while many state laws lack those limits. A jury is free to order employers to pay as much as the jury believes the case is worth.