Like if they went on stage and flopped, they could get fired. Similarly maybe they were too good. Or the boss was having a bad day.
One of the employees is based out of Sydney, so No, California at-will employment law doesn't apply.
It would be interesting to see what grounds they are using to fire him.
Based on previous experiences with other companies, I found that it's not unusual for executives in one country to think that the employment law in their jurisdiction is universal and just assume they can apply it to employees in other countries.
Firing someone in California requires that they be paid in full right then and there. This includes payment for accrued vacation time, comp time, etc. Were these employees paid off properly?
[1] http://www.turleylawfirm.com/blog/final-paycheck-laws-for-te...
Most notice periods in AU are 4 weeks so you either are fired with 4 weeks notice or fired immediately and paid for those 4 weeks.
(The notice period also applies if you decide to leave the organisation)
The rule specifically is:
Can notice be paid out instead of worked?
Yes. An employer can either:
Let the employee work through their notice period, or
pay it out to them (also known as pay in lieu of notice).
If the employer pays out the notice, the amount paid to the employee must equal the full amount the employee would have been paid if they worked until the end of the notice period. This includes:
incentive-based payments and bonuses loadings monetary allowances overtime penalty rates any other separately identifiable amounts.
If the employer pays out the notice, the employee does not accrue any annual leave for the notice period they were paid out for.
https://www.fairwork.gov.au/ending-employment/notice-and-fin...
https://www.lawsociety.com.au/community/publicationsandfaqs/...
They might have one here, but I doubt it.
Specifically John Cramb (the Australian) was presenting alongside Josh Schwartz the director of offensive security. It seems that one could reasonably establish that John was acting under the directions of his superior, and that would mean that the default position would be to assume that his actions were sanctioned by the company unless they can prove that he knew otherwise.
And even then, they would be expected to provide a written warning, or justify why the violation was so extreme to justify immediate termination (which would be very difficult given he was active under the instructions of a superior).
Base on the limited evidence we have, it seems that Salesforce has unfairly dismissed John, and that the Californian executive ought to have consulted with an Australian HR lawyer before he acted.
Generally speaking, multinational companies will offer employment contracts through a local subsidiary. In that case the employment will fall under the laws of that country. And if they send you on an overseas business trip that doesn't change anything - even if the parent company is domiciled in that country.
If they don't have a local presence, and you're working remotely, then you're more likely to be a contractor and dismissal laws are pretty loose.
The interesting thing would be if they had a local subsidiary but chose to employ you on contract to the parent company. I suspect (but IANAL) that the Australian Fair Work Commission would determine that (if the contract was long term and indefinite) that you were actually an employee of the local subsidiary.
That's not true, we have unfair dismissal laws: https://www.fwc.gov.au/termination-of-employment/unfair-dism... . From the page:
Your dismissal may be considered unfair if:
* you were dismissed, and
* your dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable, and
* your dismissal was not a case of genuine redundancy, and
* if you were employed by a small business, your dismissal was not consistent with the Small Business Fair Dismissal Code.
Personally I would consider this harsh, unjust and unreasonable, especially if this is the first time and the person doesn't have a lot of publicity experience.
(a) and (b) give you Australian employment protections. (c) obviously only gives you whatever protections are in the contract.
I've never seen anyone under a contract of employment (rather than a contract for services) of a foreign company that purports to not be governed by Australian employment law.
Actually, they can (with a few exceptions). California is at-will employment:
"At-will employment is a term used in U.S. labor law for contractual relationships in which an employee can be dismissed by an employer for any reason (that is, without having to establish "just cause" for termination), and without warning."
Or, as the Supreme Court of California explains:
"[A]n employer may terminate its employees at will, for any or no reason ... the employer may act peremptorily, arbitrarily, or inconsistently, without providing specific protections such as prior warning, fair procedures, objective evaluation, or preferential reassignment ... The mere existence of an employment relationship affords no expectation, protectable by law, that employment will continue, or will end only on certain conditions, unless the parties have actually adopted such terms."
Like, if someone decides to come out of the closet on social media and their co-workers find out and their boss hears about it and fires themthe next day but claims that it's a "no reason" termination, it would certainly raise suspicion that they were actually being fired for being gay and they might win a wrongful termination lawsuit, even in an at-will employment state.
[0] http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/california-employment...