Can An Employee Be Fired For Rebutting A Negative Review? Maybe.
A new decision from the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called into question the breadth and scope of an employee’s right to rebut negative information put into her personnel file by an employer.
Under G.L. c. 149, §52C, if an employee disagrees with the employer regarding negative information being added to her employee file, the employee has a statutory right to have her side of the story included in the file by way of a rebuttal. In doing so, the employee is able to protect herself by ensuring that the information contained in her file includes both sides of the dispute. On January 20, 2021, however, the Massachusetts Appeals Court held in Meehan v. Medical Info. Tech., Inc. that an employee may be fired for filing a rebuttal under the statute.
