California is an at-will employment state. (Every state but Montana is at-will.) This means that you can terminate someone for any reason or no reason, as long as it doesn’t violate the law. So, you can terminate someone for wearing mismatched shoes, but you can’t terminate someone for being pregnant. You can fire a pregnant woman for wearing mismatched shoes, but you better be able to show that you fire all people with fashion failures.
So, how could Yahoo possibly be facing a lawsuit for firing employees? There’s no claim of discrimination. Just a claim that employees weren’t fired, they were laid off.
To keep reading, click here: Yahoo’s Sketchy Termination Policy May Land Them in Hot Water
I’m sure this will end up costing Yahoo much more than if they had simply paid the 60 days’ severance pay or — better yet — given the employees the required 60 days’ notice and gotten the benefit of their labors during those 60 days.
It is no secret though that Yahoo doesn’t really consider these things anymore; now that they are trying to set themselves apart from everyone else so desperately, they also seem to think they are above such considerations as well.