The Washington state Supreme Court has upheld, on a 5-4 ruling, a Spokane County Superior Court judge's dismissal of a wrongful termination lawsuit brought against Nova Services, of Spokane, by a number of its former employees.

The ruling affirmed a 2-1 appeals court decision in Nova's favor three years ago.

Nova is a nonprofit that provides job training and placement to disadvantaged and developmentally disabled people. Most of the employees involved in the case were fired or left the organization after complaining to Nova's board about Executive Director Linda Brennan and her management style, despite a policy prohibiting such communications.

The plaintiffs in the suit, including six former members of Nova's management team, also accused Nova of retaliation, negligent infliction of emotional distress, outrage, and negligent supervision. They claimed that their actions constituted "concerted activities" statutorily protected under state law, which thus prohibited the employer from terminating them.

The majority opinion, authored by Justice James M. Johnson, said, though, that the court is "constrained from creating broad exceptions to the general Washington rule that employers and employees can end their relationship at will."

Generally, an at-will employee can be terminated without cause, unless that firing violates certain public policy exceptions, such as one involving employees' joint efforts to improve their working conditions. In this case though, the majority agreed with the appellate court that employees' dissatisfaction with management style doesn't qualify as such an exception.

Justices Gerry L. Alexander and Richard B. Sanders concurred with Johnson. Justices Charles W. Johnson and Barbara A. Madsen wrote separate opinions, agreeing with the lead opinion, but disagreeing with some of the analysis.

A dissent opinion, authored by Justice Susan Owens and joined by Justices Mary E. Fairhurst, Debra L. Stephens, and Tom Chambers, disagreed with the majority's findings and said the appeals court decision should be reversed and the matter remanded back to the trial court for further proceedings.

The six Nova managers wrote to the nonprofit's board on April 6, 2004, after trying unsuccessfully to talk with Brennan directly about their perception of her poor management, court documents say. Their complaints, the documents say, dealt with a range of issues, including perceived leadership, administrative, community relations, and financial shortcomings. At the end of the letter, the managers said they would collectively "leave" if Brennan fired any of them for raising concerns with the board.

The board hired an employment attorney to investigate their allegations and a human-resources consultant to act as a mediator, and ultimately supported Brennan. She met individually with four of the managers in July to ask if each "could move forward," but didn't inform them that she was going to fire the two other managers later that day for insubordination based partly on their approach to the board, court documents show. Three days after those firings, employees sent another letter to the board, demanding Brennan's removal and the reinstatement of the two fired managers, or they would "walk out of Nova Services."

The board didn't respond to the ultimatum within a deadline set by the employees, and Brennan replaced the employees after they failed to return to work.

In their lawsuit, all of the employees argued they were terminated improperly for joining together to complain to the board, which they said violated state law.

The majority opinion by the state Supreme Court said, "Employees in Washington do have some statutory protection of rights to band together to improve their working conditions. However, these rights do not extend so far as to supersede the employer's right to hire and retain the leadership of a company."