Section 16 Jury Service and Other Actions Encouraged by Public Policy

• Library: Employment Discrimination 2008

The third category of public cases includes discharges resulting from the participation by an employee in acts encouraged by public policy. In Boyle v. Vista Eyewear, Inc., 700 S.W.2d 859 (Mo. App. W.D. 1985), the court provided examples of such acts, including jury duty, seeking public office, and joining a labor union. Boyle, 700 S.W.2d at 873–74. Boyle cited Smith v. Arthur C. Baue Funeral Home, 370 S.W.2d 249
(Mo. 1963), in which the employee was terminated for exercising a constitutional right to select a collective bargaining representative, as an example of a Missouri case whose facts fall into this third category. In footnote 10 of its opinion, Boyle also cites to a number of cases outside the jurisdiction in further support of this third category...