With enough money in the fired party's bank account, it would be. I think the only difference between Europe and the US in this regard is the amount of money required to get justice.
> With enough money in the fired party's bank account, it would be.
Most of the US is at-will, employees can be fired for no reason or any reason as long as there's no breach of relevant federal statutes (Equal Pay Act, Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disability Act, …) — the latter being why employees are generally fired with absolutely no reason provided just to avoid any possibility of status breach.
That means for most firings there is no legal recourse, because there is no legal labour protection.
Most of Europe is very different on that point, you can't fire somebody just because you feel like it, and there are a number of labour-focused courts which tend to have a very bad view of companies trying to break or skirt labour laws.
It's not a question of money, it's a question of laws, or the lack thereof.
In US to get rid of an employee, you have 2 choices: fire or lay off.
You can fire an employee for his performances or for a fault, and he's not entitled to any compensation.
You can lay off an employee whenever you want, but you usually have to give him a severance package and maybe other benefits.
The difference between US and Europe is that a layoff is easy in US, while in Europe you need a good reason (for example the company is losing money) and you have accountability in the way to pick who has to go. Also the severance package is bigger, and there is a several month notice to give.
Back to US, a fired employee can sue if if believe the firing was not appropriate. In this case, I don't know if Hank or Adria were actually fired or laid off. In the former they could have sued, in the latter there's nothing they could have done.
I'm sure proceedings have been successfully made in such states, at great financial expense, to prove that even though no reason was given "federal statutes" were breached. Your argument that that has never happened and can never happen is much harder to make convincingly.
> Your argument that that has never happened and can never happen is much harder to make convincingly.
No, my argument is that the vast majority of firings in the US are not covered by any labour protection laws or agreements. It's not a question of money when there's no law or contract to build your case on.
I think what throwawayaway was saying was that if a company wants to lay you off in a way that contravenes some employee protection laws they'll first offer you a sum of money on condition that it doesn't go to court (more than the amount they legally have to).
I'm not sure about other EU countries, but mine grants a small amount of free lawyer hours to every resident. Those free lawyers are not AAA-grade for sure, but they take care of the formalities. Some people (low income, unions etc) are eligible for more hours and/or better free lawyers.
So in case of a simple case, it might end up being free.
As @throwawayaway mentioned, some people may be worried about privacy. Many European countries are truly that small.
I myself have my location in my profile, so obviously this is not the case :) By saying that it's my country, I don't have to add if I just heard about it from my colleague, friend, read on a blog or have first-hands experience. I could say "my country (name-of-the-country)" to make it more clear though. But in this case the exact country doesn't matter much. Thus I put in the necessary information only.
If you're a member of some sort of union (and many more people are) then they'll often provide you with a legal team for free if they believe your case is 'worthy'.
I don't think tech workers in the EU would find it prohibitively expensive to take an employer to court, though. Plus, legal insurance is pretty affordable at this income bracket.
I pay 22 pounds(~$28)/month for my home insurance and it also provides up to half a million pounds for legal costs in case I wanted to sue my employer on the grounds of unfair dismissal. In general, I wouldn't think twice about going to court about anything, most things you can do without a lawyer or with a court-appointed one.
no you dont, in Europe there is a lot of legal aid and support available to bring these to employment tribunals. you dont have to be rich to get justice over here (but as with everywhere it does help).
well free legal aid is worth what you pay for it in mine and other's experience. hopefully you won't have to rely on it someday. being rich certainly does help.
i disagree, free legal aid is very good, it just depends on your experience. i assume you are in the US and free legal aid there is the public defender where they are underfunded, overworked and probably not motivated by the system. In the UK where legal aid has been a part of the system for so long there is little difference between the quality of advice and representation. Some of the top firms for employment rights do both private and legal aid funded work and the same people work on both. Yes there are corporate law employment lawyers who dont do legal aid but I would bet dollars to donuts that most of them cut their teeth doing legal aid funed work and it is that work that gave them the experience and knowledge to move onto private paying work.
I'm in the EU. My experience has been with juniors or people who may be older in years but very new to the profession and they used the cover of free legal aid to fish for paying customers for their firms.
Not at all, in Europe this kind of justice is accessible to most people (and most likely you will win the costs as well). OK, I am speaking for Spain but I guess it is the same thing in all of the EU.
