A group of Washington employees, unhappy with their supervisor, threatened to resign if their employer failed to fire her. When they walked off the job, the employer hired replacements. They then complained that they had been unjustly terminated.

What happened. “Woody” and seven other people worked for Nova Services, a Washington nonprofit that provides services to disabled persons. All eight employees worked under the supervision of Nova’s executive director, “Bacco.” In 2004, the employees became concerned with the way Bacco was running the organization. After trying and failing to talk with her in person, they sent a letter to the board of directors, stating their dissatisfaction with Bacco’s leadership, administration, finance, board development, corporate culture, and community and government relations. The letter requested that the board take action and said that the employees would collectively leave if Bacco terminated any of them for raising their concerns with the board.

Nova believed that the letter violated its policy barring direct employee communication with the board but took no disciplinary action at the time. Instead, it hired an attorney to investigate the employees’ concerns. The attorney found no wrongdoing but a great deal of personal animosity, and recommended that Nova terminate either Bacco or Woody and “Robert,” one of the other employees. (Woody and Robert were apparently considered to be the ringleaders who spearheaded the communication.) Nova attempted to set up a mediation, but the parties refused to attend.

On July 12, 2004, Bacco terminated Woody and Robert for insubordination and directly addressing the board. That day she met with the rest of the employees and told them that she would try to address their concerns. A few days later, the remaining six employees sent a letter to the board requesting that it reinstate Woody and Robert and fire Bacco. The letter said that they would quit if their requests were not met. The board did not contact them, and they did not come to work the next day. Bacco considered this a group resignation and began to hire replacements.

The employees filed a complaint against Nova alleging wrongful discharge. The trial court dismissed the case at Nova’s request, and the Court of Appeals affirmed this decision. The employees appealed to the Supreme Court of Washington.

What the court said. Employees in Washington have some statutory protection of their right to band together to improve working conditions. Washington has a long history of allowing such activities on matters such as wages, medical coverage, treatment by supervisors, rest breaks, and work rules. Employees do not have the right, however, to choose their managers or set company practices; these rights are traditionally reserved for employers. Nor does the state prevent employees from quitting their jobs voluntarily.

Seen in that light, Nova’s firing of its two employees and acknowledging that the other six had quit did not violate public policy, and the firings were not caused by any protected activity. The first letter to the board did not discuss working conditions, but instead criticized Nova’s management. Nova’s response in hiring a lawyer and a mediator was correct.

Firing Woody and Robert was reasonable under the circumstances; they were employees at will, so Nova did not even need a reason to fire them, but it is entirely proper for an employer to fire employees who refuse to work with their supervisor. Accepting the other six employees’ resignations and hiring replacements was also a reasonable response. Those employees left voluntarily and promised that they would not return unless their conditions were met, which they were not. They could hardly make a case that they had been fired for engaging in protected activity.

The Supreme Court concluded that Nova had not violated any public policy by firing Woody and Robert and accepting the resignations of the other six employees. The employees had presented no genuine issue of material fact, so Nova was entitled to have the case dismissed without a trial. Briggs v. Nova Services, Supreme Court of Washington, No. 79615-7 (8/27/09).

Point to remember: All three courts agreed; employees cannot hold their employers’ feet to the fire on the matter of hiring and firing supervisors.