Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen has commanded the news this week with his antics, so I guess I'll jump on the bandwagon and ask this: What are the employment law issues in all of this? Drug policies? Insubordination? Tortious interference? Slander?


Amy Spies over at the Huffington Post kind of brings the matter around to employment law matters by comparing Sheen to Howard Beale in the Network, and then both to ordinary people:

They are not alone. Obviously, Howard Beale and Charlie Sheen's battles with their corporate bosses are high-class, first-world feuds, but angry people in their audiences are also mad as hell without comparable megaphones, star power, huge bank accounts, and audiences; they, too, don't want to (and some literally can't) financially take it anymore. Unemployment statistics overflow with individuals, far less highly compensated, who having serving their companies for decades, find themselves suddenly fired or having their jobs disappeared, replaced by young, malleable robots or automated voices or parking pay machines. The movie Network was fresh 35 years ago, when we were more naïve in cohabiting with cold corporations. Now, post-recession, we're battle-scarred, losing homes to mortgages going upside-down, seeing savings turn negative due to fiscal greed and fraud, feeling our self-esteem, senses of self and safety go poof along with pensions and health-care plans.

 Fox News reports on "How to Deal With the Charlie Sheen of Your Workplace."

“Financially, it is actually cheaper to send someone to treatment than it is to rehire someone,” Sebetich said. “If a company chooses to terminate, it is likely they will hire someone again in the future who has a problem.”

Hopefully something good can come of this public meltdown.

Updates: 

1. Jon Hyman at the Ohio Employment Law Blog asks whether CBS has opened itself up to a ADA suit with its termination letter.

and follows it up with
http://www.ohioemployerlawblog.com/2011/03/i-love-it-when-im-right-charlie-sheen.html

and http://www.ohioemployerlawblog.com/2011/03/wirtw-168-tiger-blood-winning-whatever.html

2.  Mark Toth at Manpower Employment Blawg sees lessons for employers in the Sheen-CBS dispute.

3. Philip Miles has named Sheen's suit his case of the week.