On December 17, 2021, Meehan v. Medical Information Technology, Inc., the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (“SJC”) held that an employee’s filing a rebuttal to information placed in their personnel file that could negatively affect them is an act protected by public policy. In doing so, it held that terminating an at-will employee simply for filing a rebuttal constitutes a wrongful discharge in violation of public policy.
Employers are generally free to terminate at-will employees for any reason, or no reason at all. Among others, Massachusetts recognizes an exception to this rule when employment is terminated contrary to a well-defined public policy. One of the judicially recognized categories of protected public policy is when an employee asserts a legally guaranteed right. In Meehan, the SJC held that because the ability to submit a rebuttal is a legally guaranteed right of employment (provided under the Massachusetts personnel record law, G.L. c. 149, § 52C), termination for exercise of this right violates public policy.
According to the facts alleged by the plaintiff in Meehan, the day he sent a rebuttal to his supervisor related to a performance improvement his employer had placed him on, his employer terminated his employment. Notably, the employee did not attach a copy of his rebuttal to his complaint or allege its contents and at the procedural posture the case was decided at, the court had to accept as true his allegation that he was fired merely for...
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