Can my employer deliberately falsely fire me for "gross misconduct, dishonesty" and then lie to the labor dept to deny benefits?

WRONGFUL TERMINATION Based on the facts that you have provided, it is difficult to determine whether you have a possible claim against your employer. You should know that unless you have a written employment contract or are a member of a union with a collective bargaining agreement, you can be terminated for any reason or no reason. So as a general rule it is very difficult to successfully sue your former employer for wrongful termination unless you have been discriminated against based on your sex, sexual preference, age (over 40), race, creed, color, religion, ethnicity, criminal record and/or disability. I would recommend that you discuss your termination with a qualified employment attorney. Many, including my office, offer a free initial consultation, so you have nothing to lose by discussing what occurred to determine if you have a claim. If you don't know a local attorney go to: www.nelany.com and search in you area. Good luck,

Here are some additional general principles of at will employment: Termination is not unlawful because the employer is wrong in the reason or belief that the termination was based on. The employer is not required to investigate to determine the truth of any suspicion or belief, and the employer does not need to have "proof" of the circumstances that the employer believes. Subsequent "proof" that the employer's belief was incorrect, even knowingly so, will not negate the termination nor cause it to be unlawful. When the employer is confronted with differing factual representations, the employer may act in reliance on any of such competing representations, in whole or in part, singly or in combination, or none. The employer may terminate multiple employees (unlimited in number) even where their conduct cannot be harmonized. For example, if multiple employees make different and irreconcilable statements about a theft, the employer can simply terminate all. At will employment can be very harsh in its application. The conceptual key of at will employment is that the employer's conduct is not unlawful unless there is a law prohibiting it.

Absolutely. Employers save on having to pay benefits to departed employees if the basis for the departure is disciplinary. So an employer will cook up disciplinary allegations no matter the reality between the employer and the employee. This conduct has as its genesis the current state of federal labor law. While this is not a legal analysis of your particular labor case, I will give you a general overview of labor law as it exists today and why your employer stood to prevail by lying about you. Up until the recent past, employer behavior could be regulated by local courts. An employee could sue the employer and resolve factual disputes before a judge and obtain a finding of fact and a ruling resolving the dispute. Then the federal government made changes. All labor contracts - which were actionable in state courts - are now preempted by 28 USC §1331 so federal common law and federal statutes, for example 28 USC §185(a) (the federal Labor Management Relations Act), apply. So, if you sue in state court, the corporate defendant can remove the matter to federal court (federal lawyers cost more) pursuant to 28 USC §1441 and 1446 and then have it dismissed under the appropriate labor regulation. These labor regulations have very detailed procedures that corporations must follow. They are so detailed that it is nearly impossible to prove that a corporation did not follow them. So the case gets dismissed. A concrete example may be that your union may have failed to represent you properly and take you through the proper grievance steps. The statute is so written that no matter what the union did, the federal court will defer to the union. So you lose your day in court and your employer realizes he can do anything he wants to you because there is no ultimate authority watching over the matter. Next time, watch your back, take notes and always have other work lined up when you get vibrations from your employer that you are no longer needed. These are highly unstable times: employment, having a family, owning a home. You must be prepared in all these areas to make it.