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If my friend was fired from a SNF and they tell her they are terminating her but they are not putting anything on her license and they are also not giving a reason for termination or the initial suspension, what legal standings does she have?


April 29th, 2023

First, consider if your friend is telling you the whole story. Some state laws allow facilities to fire staff or the staff member to quit without legal consequences. Also, some facilities are able to discharge an employee without a paper trail, during probation. She is lucky her license was not affected.

July 24th, 2023

It depends on the state. If a state is "at-will" an employer can terminate for no reason at all. Flip side---an employee can terminate without notice (not wise but it can be done). It is crappy not to tell the employee why or give some clue. How can a person do better, if they don't know what they did or didn't do that warranted termination.

June 15th, 2023

I have hard time believing she doesn't know what she is bringing fired for. I have been in management in SNF for almost 30 years and have always discussed termination reason. If this is so she needs to put a request in writing to see her HR file and if not consult a lawyer.

January 27th, 2024

Depends on the state. If it's an at-will state, not much, really. She might be able to get unemployment, unless they have a valid reason to have terminated her, because they would have to show documentation, such as write ups, as reason. And they generally have to give a reason for suspension. A lot of places won't go for the license simply because it's not cost or time effective unless it's a super serious offense or State is involved. Tell her to be 100% sure there's no valid reason, not just one she doesn't understand, because if she goes the legal route, they'll throw everything they have at her.