Poll: New Yorkers want 'reasonable justification' for firing

Should employers be able to fire workers without providing a reasonable justification? Roughly 81% of New York City likely voters think not, according to new polling by the progressive firm Data for Progress. 

The poll results, reportedly exclusively by City & State, questioned 586 likely New York City voters in mid-May on principles in legislation sponsored by socialist City Council Member Tiffany Cabán that would prohibit employers from firing their employees without “just cause,” defined as an employee’s failure to “satisfactorily perform job duties” or “misconduct that is demonstrably and materially harmful” to the employer’s business interests. Employers would be able to lay people off for “bona fide economic reasons,” but as defined in the legislation, that wouldn’t include elimination of a staff redundancy created by a merger or acquisition. The bill, introduced last December, has nine other co-sponsors in the City Council. Business groups have pushed back fiercely against the notion of ending at-will employment.

Cabán’s bill would also regulate how employers use different kinds of electronic monitoring of employees, including video and audio surveillance in a private home, and data on how fast employees are working, as a basis for discipline or firing. The polling didn’t include questions on those aspects of the bill.

According to the poll results, support for requiring employers to provide reasonable justification before firing an employee spanned the political spectrum, with 88% of Democrats polled, 68% of Republicans, and 73% of independent or third-party respondents supportive.