A company can fire its employees and offer them their jobs back as independent contractors under the condition that they relinquish any claim they may have had against the company, including discrimination claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled.

The opinion issued Feb. 13 was the second time that the appeals court had weighed in on the case, having vacated the initial rulings from the district court in 2009 and remanded the case with the specification that it should be reassigned to a new trial court judge.

The initial case had combined claims brought by employees of Allstate Insurance, who had been presented with the offer to keep their jobs as independent contractors as long as they released any potential claims they had against the company, and an action brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Third Circuit's Feb. 13 opinion dealt only with the EEOC's suit, which argued that Allstate's offer violated anti-retaliation laws.