Bettman on Supreme Court of Ohio on Wrongful Termination

At Legally Speaking Ohio, Marianna Brown Bettman provides a thorough analysis of the Supreme Court of Ohio's decision in House v. Iacovelli.  In that case, the court stated:  “It is less likely that a wrongful-termination-in-violation-of-public-policy claim is necessary when remedies for statutory violations are included in the statutory scheme.”  The court rejected the wrongful discharge claim; the fact there was no remedy for the individual employee affected did not alter the court's decision.

This reminds me of a recent Iowa case:  Ferguson v. Exide Techs., Inc., 936 N.W.2d 429, 434-435 (Iowa 2019) (“[W]hen the legislature includes a right to civil enforcement in the very statute that contains the public policy a common law claim would protect, the common law claim for wrongful discharge in violation of public policy becomes unnecessary.”).  The major difference between the two is that the Iowa holding leaves the individual employee with a claim.