Hearsy & Defamation of Character if client & ER term contract & employment over unverified 3rd-party allegations & refuse to provide evidence?

[Annie3]

Is it possibly heresy and defamation of character for an employer and client supervisor to obtain incriminating information from 3rd parties about an employee /contractor, not disclose the information to the worker, and then use this information to terminate the client contract and the worker permanently from their managing firm? Post-termination, is it legal for an employer to refuse to provide in writing this incriminating information from the client or the employer’s formal reason for the terminating the worker permanently? Can the client enforce a cease-and-desist letter barring the worker from contacting any of the alleged incriminating information sources at work? Can the worker contact these sources outside of the work-force to request confirmation of incriminating claims made without breaching the no-contact desist letter or constituting harassment?

Background:
I worked as an Accounting Consultant (glorified perma-temp) over 7 years and 2 layoffs for a national staffing firm with a permanent “consulting” division. After 2nd layoff, I was eventually hired by branch in N. New England region. I never met the hiring staff in-person. With 5 days remaining on my 1st project, my managing firm telephoned to inform me that the client was ending the project that day and that the firm was also terminating me. The project had been extended twice already, lasting nearly 5 months at time of call. No warning, no remediation plan, no severance. I did have historic issues with the firm over 2 layoffs concerning what I thought was lack of managerial oversight and unqualified project selections, lack of transparency regarding paid bench time ratios and working conditions in general.

I was hired by the client of this final project to assist a permanent staff, a middle-aged career changer, who was having trouble meeting her workload. Within 2 weeks, she announced that she had made formal complaints to HR about management mistreatment (the boss of her boss and my client supervisor) and excessive workload. I informed my firm of a potential hostile work environment. Two months later, she was fired for “performance issues,” resulting in an extension of my project while a replacement was sought.

Over the 5 months-long project, my firm never bothered to check-up on the matter. When my managing firm called to announce the project and firm termination, he quickly cited 5-6 incidences that the client had accumulated as creating “concerns” about my presence. I could barely hear his comments due to being pulled over at the side of a rural highway (client was 55 miles from my home), but it was apparent that the client accumulated a list of incidences from around the organization (rural Hospital near resort town), including cafeteria where I dined on my free-time and own cost, a maintenance worker who did work in our office once and another notoriously acerbic staff in a different department that I had several meetings with. No characterizing label such as my behavior was “rude,” “unprofessional,” or “unstable” was given.

Also curious during the last two weeks prior to my termination, I informed the client that I had completed the training of the new staff. I also overheard the client supervisor announce a material financial loss for the quarter.

Over the next 2 months, I contacted initially the HR department of the client (hospital) and was met with a very stern warning email from the manager not to contact anyone at the hospital. I tried contacting the cafeteria manager who might have lodged a complaint, and the HR manager sent me a second email warning that she would continue legal action against me if I contacted any employee again. Since I was not aware of any initial “legal action,” I responded with a request to forward the results of any legal action currently taken. Two weeks later I received via mail a cease-and-desist letter from the client’s law firm.

During this time, I emailed and telephoned my managing firm several times to request the client’s information to be forwarded to me. They either ignored me or responded in vague terms that they had provided all of the information that was necessary. They refused to answer whether they even bothered to ask the client’s permission to disclose his list of issues to me.

Is this normal and legal? Can I legally demand that this client (Finance Dept. of hospital) provide the “intel” that they accumulated about me and provided only to my firm? Can I demand that my firm provide in writing the formal reason why they were able to term me without warning or discussion of client incident to determine if there was any false or inaccurate information that I could refute? My firm was likely very motivated to terminate me due to my past working condition complaints. But did they do so legally, and if so, can I still require them to document the nature of the alleged complaints made about me from my last client? To my mind, this is heresy and a case of slander and defamation of character. Curiously, I was given no opportunity to review the information gathered about me and a chance to refute it.

 

[quincy]

Heresy?

What is the name of your state?

 

[Annie3]

My client supervisor and employer (Staffing firm) were based in NH, although if it makes a difference, my primary or 'home' branch was Maine.

 

[quincy]

Thank you for answering my question, Annie3.

You can "demand" anything you want from whomever you want but you cannot force anyone to turn over documents absent a court action or a court order.

Without knowing exactly what was said about you, or why, it is impossible to say if you were defamed.

 

[Taxing Matters]

Well, I assume you meant the word hearsay rather than heresy. I linked the Webster's dictionary definitions of those terms so you'll see what I mean. The Webster's definition of hearsay provides the common meaning of the word as used by non lawyers: statements that are rumor, e.g.. things the speaker heard from someone else. Thus, from your perspective the things the manager told you were said about you by others would be seen as rumor or hearsay. In the law, the term hearsay refers to a rule of evidence and is not itself something for which you can sue. The Webster's definition of hearsay evidence in that link is not quite correct, but I'll not dive into a discussion of that here. Law students spend some considerable time in their evidence classes learning the details of this rule, and that wouldn't help with your question here.

However, the rumor might amount to a claim for defamation, depending on exactly what was said and what effect it had on your ultimate termination. Note that to be defamatory the statements have to be false statements of fact about you that damage your reputation. If the statements were true, they are not defamatory even if they are negative. Similarly, statements of pure opinion are not defamatory either, no matter how negative or mean they may be.

When the employer is not a government agency, then the employer may legally fire you for any reason (or no reason at all) except for a few reasons prohibited by law. The prohibited reasons include firing you because:

• of your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like sexual orientation);
• you make certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);
• you participate in union organizing activities;
• you use a right or benefit the law guarantees you (e.g. using leave under FMLA);
• you filed a bankruptcy petition;
• your pay was garnished by a single creditor; and
• you took time off work to attend jury duty (in most states).

The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary by state. So unless the reason for the termination was something like one of those things listed above, you'd not have any claim against the employer for wrongful termination itself. The employer evidently told you the client terminated the contract you were working on and then the employer promptly terminated you. That suggests that the reason for terminating you was the client's termination of the project. If that is indeed the reason, that's not wrongful termination. You also apparently had a rocky history with the firm, so that may have compounded the problems you had on this present assignment.

You asked the employer to give you the information about what was said and what the company uncovered about you and the employer declined to give it to you. There is no law that forces the employer to comply with your request. If you sued the employer for a claim in which that information was relevant, however, you could get that in discovery. But you won't get it before you file a lawsuit unless the employer voluntarily decides to share it with you. Note that the employer did not have to share with you the information prior to terminating you nor give you a chance to refute it. While it may have been nice for them to give you that opportunity, it was not legally required.

You may wish to see a civil litigation attorney about the possible defamation and to see if by any chance there is some wrongful termination issue here (though I'm not seeing one from just the information you provided).

 

[Annie3]

Thank you kindly, Quincy and Taxing Matter, for your helpful replies!

I agree, Quincy, that it is difficult to claim defamation of character when the alleged misdeeds are 'MIA,' e.g. the client will not provide evidence or documentation of the alleged issues that led to "concerns" about having me around (with only 5 days remaining after 5 months project). Hence, I wondered if hearsay (please pardon my incorrect spelling in introduction) leading to Defamation of Character were appropriate as the client accumulated information about me over a period of time without consultation or interest in my possibility of refuting it. Representing whatever that information contained to my employer as a "concern" and reason to breach the contract prematurely effectively characterized me as a "problem" or "hazard" contractor in spite of my successful working relationships with immediate department members over 5 months. The alleged reports were obtained from 3rd parties as far-flung as the cafeteria staff. Thus, it feels like a defamation of character by slight-of-hand. When I suddenly disappeared from the project, the remaining personnel would be left to wonder what dastardly deed I did to be removed without warning. To my mind, it has a reputationally injurious effect and may in actuality be based on falsehoods, lies or misinterpretations. Regardless, I suspect that you are correct that I have no legal basis to "demand" that the incriminating information be forwarded to me.

Taxing Matter, I will review your extensive technical explanations several times. Yes, you are correct in regard to your characterization of the termination as resulting after the client prematurely ended my contract and then my employer followed-suit in terminating me from the firm. While any employer has the right to not offer a warning or severance package, I feel that the absence of severance indicates that they relied on the client's hearsay and/or retaliated against my earlier working condition complaints. My employer did cite a list of 5-6 alleged incidences gathered around the organization, so they were complicit in being privy to information obtained from 3rd parties and not verifying it with me. They are aware as a staffing firm of how deleterious it is in the employment market to be unemployed and looking for a position. While they are a national firm and have undoubtedly determined with their legal resources how to terminate employees without legal risk, I feel that my incident is unusual in how they divulged that client reported at time of contract termination that I had excellent technical skills but that they had "concerns" about various incidences (and these incidences all appear to be from 3rd parties, not from my direct peers, and unverified with me).

From a technical standpoint, is anyone comfortable addressing whether I can contact the organization's (hospital if it makes a difference) Board of Directors to report not only my matter but the fired staff for "performance issues" that I was originally hired to support after having been served with a cease-and-desist contact letter from client? Do the BOD constitute the same level of employee contact as my direct peers or the alleged staff who made the incriminating remarks? I feel strongly that the client manager is incompetent for treating 2 staff (1 permanent and me the contractor) in this similar manner in less than 6 months time.

Thank you again for your assistance!

 

[quincy]

You have been warned not to contact the client or others at the workplace and I think you would be smart to heed that warning.

You might want to have an attorney in your area personally look over the no-contact cease-and-desist to better determine exactly what limits it places on you. The attorney can also advise you at that time what options are available for you to pursue and if he thinks there is anything to support a defamation claim. Although something was obviously said about you, I don't see from what you have posted any clear evidence of defamation.

Have you filed for unemployment benefits?