" Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich has been fired for cause after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine and being noncompliant with both state and university policies, the university announced Monday evening. Rolovich sought, and appears to have been denied, a religious exemption from those mandates, which required employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18 if they wished to continue working.
Four Washington State assistant coaches have also been terminated: Ricky Logo (defensive tackles), John Richardson (assistant head coach, cornerbacks), Craig Stutzmann (co-offensive coordinator, quarterbacks) and Mark Weber (offensive line)."
As I understand it, it can’t be “for cause” or contract law is dead in this country and everyone should let that guide their decisions going forward.
You probably know a lot more about the law than I do, but I had a lay persons view
that “for cause” could be refusing to follow your employers policies. I suppose they could
impose a dress code policy tomorrow that all coaches wear a purple tie when indoors on Tuesdays or clean underwear .Failure to abide is grounds for not following employment edict. Could that
be “for cause” ? Please explain in non lawyerly language. Thanks.
I’m no legal person, just looking at it with common sense. In an employment at will situation, the employer can fire you for not complying with their new made-up condition of employment but it can’t be for cause because they are changing the initial agreed upon terms of employment. For contracted labor such as the coaches the terms of their employment are literally spelled out in a formal contract. The employer can try to renegotiate terms and fire you (illegally I think) but would still owe you every cent of the existing contract.
Ah, I see what your saying. I would have thought the school would have a statement in the contract that spells out “abiding by current school policy”, without going into specific detail about every condition of required employment policy handbook. But perhaps your right and the contracts are hundreds, if not thousands of pages long, that spell out everything in specific detail, including the length of your hair or hem of your skirt. In that case , the contract may not list all newly required vaccinations and you could not be fired “for cause”. Or coaches contract only applies to policy handbook 2019 version.
Gotta think this is going to be the new golden age for lawyers.