Does California allow employers to hire employees "At Will". This means the company can terminate an employee, At will, with or without cause at any time with or without notice at the sole discretion of the company. This is a non union company. Is this legal??

Yes, this is allowed and most employment in California is "at will."

What's more, most employment in the United State is at-will. The only state that does not at least nominally recognize the at-will doctrine is Montana, and even Montana recogizes it in some circumstances.

There are however a fair number of formal exceptions to the Employment At Will doctrine, particularly in California. The Monthly Labor Review had a good article on the subject which can be found below.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/01/art1exc.htm

Just a thought;
An employer may try to use "at will" as a pretext to illegally discriminate against a protected class.

There are however a fair number of formal exceptions to the Employment At Will doctrine, particularly in California. The Monthly Labor Review had a good article on the subject which can be found below.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/01/art1exc.htm

DAW, this is a wonderful resource. Thanks for sharing!

Just a thought;
An employer may try to use "at will" as a pretext to illegally discriminate against a protected class.

Where there is a will, there is a way! If you are looking for a loophole, you can almost always find one or make your own. Unfortunately some employers do take advantage of the "at will" doctrine. You are definitely right about that!

It's been my experience that most employers take terminations seriously. And more often than not, there is a legitimate reason to end the employment relationship. One thing we have to remember is that every story we hear has another side. From the perspective and scope of this board, we only get half of the picture. While we can often emphathize with the OP, there may be other mitigating circumstances he/she hasn't shared with us.

When I've had to terminate employees in the past, it's always been a tough call for me. I had legitmate reasons for letting the worker go but it did still pull at the heartstrings. My point is that this decision wasn't taken lightly.