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Whitings v. Wolfson Casing Corp.9/6/2005
y. We cannot agree.
The public policy exception to the at-will employment doctrine is confined to the express statements contained within our General Statutes or our Constitution. See Considine v. Compass Grp. USA, Inc., 145 N.C. App. 314, 320-21, 551 S.E.2d 179, 184, aff'd per curiam, 354 N.C. 568, 557 S.E.2d 528 (2001). Both the Workers' Compensation Act and the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) are sources of policy establishing an employee's legally protected right of pursuing a workers' compensation claim. An action pursuant to REDA is a supplemental remedy to the common law claim of wrongful discharge. See Salter, 155 N.C. App. at 695-96, 575 S.E.2d at 53. This Court has repeatedly stated that REDA prohibits discrimination against an employee who has filed a workers' compensation claim. See, e.g., Wiley v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 164 N.C. App. 183, 186, 594 S.E.2d 809, 811 (2004); Tarrant v. Freeway Foods of Greensboro, Inc., 163 N.C. App. 504, 510, 593 S.E.2d 808, 812, disc. review denied, 358 N.C. 739, 603 S.E.2d 126 (2004); Salter, 155 N.C. App. at 690, at 575 S.E.2d at 50; Johnson v. Trustees of Durham Tech. Cmty. Coll., 139 N.C. App. 676, 681, 535 S.E.2d 357, 361 (2000), disc. review improvidently allowed, 357 N.C. 570, 597 S.E.2d 670 (2003). In enacting REDA andits predecessor statute, N.C. Gen. Stat. ยง 97-6.1, the General Assembly intended to prevent employer retaliation from having a chilling effect upon an employee's exercise of his or her statutory rights under the Workers' Compensation Act. See Conklin v. Carolina Narrow Fabrics Co., 113 N.C. App. 542, 543-44, 439 S.E.2d 239, 240 (1994). Thus, the exercise of one's rights under the Act is the legally protected activity. Asking an employer to pay for a doctor's visit or other medical services is merely an abstract assertion and not an assertion of rights under the Act. Rather, it is the filing of a workers' compensation claim that triggers the statutory and common law protection against employer retaliation in violation of public policy.
Plaintiff has not alleged that she filed a claim seeking workers' compensation benefits in connection with her injury. We conclude that by failing to allege the filing of a workers' compensation claim at any time either prior or subsequent to her discharge, plaintiff has failed to plead that she engaged in a legally protected activity. Cf. Tarrant, 163 N.C. App. at 509, 593 S.E.2d at 812 (reversing trial court's dismissal of common law wrongful discharge claim where " laintiff's allegations of the events regarding her hiring and firing tend to show that she was fired because she filed a workers' compensation claim"). As plaintiff has not alleged that she was fired for engaging in a legally protected activity, she has failed to plead all elements of a claim for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy. We, therefore, affirm the order of the trial court below.
Affirmed.
Judges McGEE and CALABRIA concur.
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