Originally posted by hokegoalie
lol. Yes they can.
At-will state.
At-will has to do with why the fire him, not what information is released regarding the employee being fired. That's just straight up privacy issues, and most states take the approach that, barring any contractual agreement, a person/entity can only be held civilly liable for releasing private information regarding an individual if the information released is offensive to the common decency (or some similar language). Stating that an employee was fired because he fucked up wouldn't qualify there. For example, if catch applies for a job and that employer calls DD, DD couldn't be held liable for telling that employer exactly why catch was fired as long as it's the truth. Their whole "can't talk because of legal reasons" excuse is a charade.