All employees of RVU are employed for an indefinite period of time. Employees may resign at any time and may be terminated at any time for any reason during the employee's probationary period, or with good cause after the probationary period.
Employees who have not completed ninety (90) calendar days of continuous employment with RVU are considered to be within their probationary period of employment for purposes of Montana's wrongful discharge law. During employees' probationary period, their employment is "at-will," meaning that either the employee or the University may terminate the relationship at any time, with or without cause and with or without notice. An employee’s supervisor, in consultation with Human Resources, may choose to extend an employee’s probationary period for up an additional 90 days as needed to fully evaluate the employee’s performance, account for excused absences, and/or acquire additional training for the employee to perform their job duties. Probationary periods extensions should be communicated to the employee before the end of their orientation/probationary period.
After employees complete their probationary period, they may still end their employment relationship with the University at any time. The University, however, may terminate an employee only for "good cause," which means any reasonable job-related grounds for an employee's dismissal based on the employee's failure to satisfactorily perform job duties, disruption of the University's operation, material, or repeated violation of an express provision in the University's policies or any other legitimate business reason.
Equal Employment Opportunity/Unlawful Harassment/Other Accommodation
As set forth in the National Handbook, RVU is committed to equal employment opportunity and to compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws. RVU also complies with Montana law, which prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employee or applicants for employment based on race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth and related medical conditions), physical or mental disability, age (over 40), marital status, state militia status and use of lawful products outside of work.
The University will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based upon these characteristics or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.