CT Supreme Court clarifies scope of ‘public policy’ exception to at-will employment

The Connecticut Supreme Court recently decided an interesting employment case about the “public policy” exception to the “at-will employment” doctrine.

Public policy exception to ‘at-will employment’

As we’ve written about numerous times, “at-will employment”—the idea that an employee can be fired at any time for any reason or for no reason at all—is something of a myth. Among other “exceptions” to employment at-will, Connecticut employers can’t fire employees for a reason that violates “public policy.”

More specifically, employers can’t fire an employee for a reason that violates “any explicit statutory or constitutional provision” or “judicially conceived notion of public policy.” A policy must be important and clearly articulated for an employee to rely on it in support of a public policy exception claim.

Case of the helicopter instructor

The Connecticut Supreme Court recently clarified the scope of the public policy exception to at-will employment in the case of a flight instructor who was fired by his company.

Tim Dunn was a flight instructor at Northeast Helicopters Flight Services, LLC. He wanted to become a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) examiner, which meant that in addition to his duties as an instructor, he would evaluate individuals to determine whether they were qualified to receive a pilot’s license.