Can i Be Fired for Writing an Article About a Competing Business Entity?
Full Question:
Answer:
The answer will depend on all the facts involved, such as the content of the article you wrote and whether you have tenure. It is possible that the engineering college may claim it puts the other college in a more favorable light regarding non-traditional students and will detract from their enrollment. In any case, if you are terminated, it is quite possible that the employer will not supply a reason or give another reason, in which case tenure may be necessary to claim a right to continued employment.
The Supreme Court of the United States decided a case which supported an employer's rights to discharge an employee for disloyal, disruptive speech and conduct. In Waters v. Churchill , 511 U.S. 661, 128 L.Ed.2d 686, 114 S.Ct. 1878 (1994), the Court considered a claim by a discharged public hospital nurse that her First Amendment rights had been violated. She had criticized the hospital's cross training policy, and later complained to another nurse about the hospital's staffing policies and supervision. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals had found that when a public employer fires an employee for engaging in speech which is later found to be protected under the First Amendment as a "matter of public concern," then the employer is liable for violating the employee's free speech rights regardless of what the employer knew about the speech at the time of the termination. The Supreme Court vacated that opinion, and remanded the case for further hearings on what the motivation of the employer was. If the employer's motivation was the nurse's earlier, general criticism of cross-training policies, then the discharge would violate the First Amendment. But if the motivation was the employer's reasonable belief after a reasonable investigation that the nurse had engaged in a conversation with a colleague that criticized her supervisor and discouraged the transfer of that colleague, then the discharge would not violate the First Amendment since such criticism was potentially disruptive to the efficient operation of the hospital, and as such, was unprotected speech.
Freedom of speech, the United States Supreme Court has held, must survive a two-stage test in order to be constitutionally protected. First, the speech must be of "public concern," relating to a matter of "political, social, or other concern" to the larger community. If it is not speech of that kind, it is simply not protected. Second, even if it meets that test, it must still be weighed against any threat it poses to the maintenance of workplace discipline or of co-worker "disharmony."
For further discussion, please see:
http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=%22first+amendment%22+%22conflict+of+interest%22+tenure&d=4814658428141997&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=89b3f804,445387f9
