Principal Attorney Jennifer Ward was recently featured on KVUE to discuss employers’ right to terminate employees alleged to have participated in the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Employers across the country, including in Texas, have taken action against such employees, many of whom have been identified through social media.
"Texas truly is an employment-at-will state, and so what that means [is] the default rule is that employers can terminate as long as there's not a particular law that you can turn to saying that termination is illegal.
“Employees have a right to privacy, so on the one hand, you do have that and anything that you are doing outside of work under private circumstances, you would expect your employer can't access, but of course things we put on social media aren't private; you don't have much of a leg to stand on."