Because of this policy, most attorneys for employers now advise their clients to try to justify any terminations based upon good cause even if they feel that it is an at-will relationship. All of the states recognize public policy exceptions to the rule. The employer is prohibited by law from discriminating against employees in certain areas, even if the employee has just applied for employment, worked only one day or 20 years. Terminations or layoffs may be improperly based on a pretextual reason rather than a real reason arising from discrimination or retaliation. Not only will an employee have a breach of contract claim according to this exception, most jurisdictions will allow an employee to pursue an independent tort claim for breach of such public policy and recover punitive damages as well.
Some violations even involve criminal penalties against the employer.
As mentioned above, an employee may have other tort claims against the employer in addition to a claim for breach of contract. One of the advantages of a breach of contract claim is that the statute of limitations deadline period is usually longer for it than for a tort claim. In California, for example, the deadline for a breach of an oral contract is two years and for a written contract four years from the date of the breach. Tort claims, on the other hand, in California have a one-year deadline. Also, contractual claims provide for a definite method to ascertain damages by evaluating sage loss.