Understanding Morality Clauses in Employment Contracts

Among other contracts or agreements that an employer may want you to sign, you may at some point be asked to sign a morality clause. But what is a morality clause, and what are the pros and cons of signing one?

What is a Morality Clause?

As the name implies, a morality clause is a contract (or a clause in a larger contract), that forces you to agree that you can be punished or terminated from employment, should you do anything immoral. By immoral, what your employer really means is anything that would bring bad publicity to your employer, or anything that would tarnish your employer’s standing in the community.

That includes things you may do, say, or post online, even outside of work hours, or outside of the scope of your job duties.

Are They Common?

In the old days, these kinds of clauses were rare—after all, if an employee did something embarrassing or dumb, who would ever know, unless the employee was a public figure. But of course, in the social media age, where everybody’s business is public, you don’t have to be a celebrity or have a public persona, to be asked to sign a morality agreement.

Relationship to At Will Employment

Bear in mind that in the absence of any written employment contract, your employer can fire you for almost any reason, because California is an at will employment state. Your employer doesn’t need you to sign any morality agreement. But for jobs where there is some kind of written work, service or employment contract, a morality clause may be included.

What is Immoral?

While there is nothing inherently wrong with signing a morality agreement, the real issue is, as you might expect—whose morals matter?

Sometimes, morality clauses are very objective—for example, it may say that you can be terminated if you are arrested. That’s an objective measure—you can objectively know whether you are arrested or you are not. Or, it may say that if you have a DUI, or if you appear online in a sexual manner, or something that you can at least objectively choose to abide by or not abide by, you may be terminated.

Open Ended Clauses

But other times, morality clauses are very open ended, which can leave room for interpretation—and if you know anything about our country, it’s that we often are very divided on what is and what is not moral. Cultural, religious, and socioeconomic demographics give all of us differing views on what is and what is not moral.

That means that by signing an open ended morality clause, you could be giving your employer an excuse to manufacture reasons to get rid of you. If you challenge your termination, then it is up to a court or jury to decide what is and what is not immoral. That’s a bad spot to be in, because again—every judge and every juror may also have differing views on what is and what is not moral.

Contact the San Jose employment attorneys at the Costanzo Law Firm today for help.

Source:

law.usnews.com/law-firms/advice/articles/what-is-a-morality-clause