Lawyers See Liability Problems for Companies Televising Layoffs on FOX
Employee waivers aren’t likely to protect companies participating in a new FOX television show called Someone’s Gotta Go, according to a Chicago employment lawyer.
The TV show will feature workers for struggling companies of 15 to 20 employees deciding who gets laid off, the Associated Press reports. Decisions will be based on confidential information such as salaries and job evaluations.
The National Law Journal asked employment and entertainment lawyers what they thought of the concept—and all expressed liability concerns.
E. Leonard Rubin, an entertainment lawyer at Chicago’s Querrey & Harrow, said the employees will likely be required to sign waivers giving up their privacy rights. But he said a waiver isn’t likely to insulate an employer from an employment discrimination suit.
“My assumption is that the release would not save the employer from a lawsuit, if in fact an employee was let go because of discrimination,” Rubin told the NLJ. “Discrimination in employment is against the law.”
Putting liability concerns aside, the lawyers also disliked the idea for the show. “I don’t know why any employer would want to proceed in this fashion,” lawyer Joel Rice of Chicago’s Fisher & Phillips told the NLJ. “Who wants to publicize that they’re laying people off, and doing it in a manner that’s humiliating to employees, on national TV?”
