The Question: My son worked at a discount store for over a year. One morning, he picked up a 79-cent Lunchable and started eating it. He was walking to the register to pay for it when a secret shopper stopped him. He was fired. I was called to the store and told if I paid a $55 fine, plus paid for the item, they wouldn't press charges. I was so embarrassed, I paid.

My son is 17. He's a hard worker with a good attendance record. It seems so unfair that he's out of a job over a misunderstanding. Can they do this?

Name withheld, Cleveland

The Answer: Can they fire him? Yes, they can.

Ohio companies can fire employees at will unless there's a contract or bargaining agreement that says otherwise, according to Sandy McNair, a Cleveland employment law attorney. (Full disclosure: McNair's firm occasionally does work on Plain Dealer union pension plans.)

In the absence of a contract, McNair said, companies can fire a worker for any reason as long as the firing doesn't violate discrimination laws.

Still, demanding that you pay $55.79 to avoid prosecution sounds like, well, something a "48 Hours" producer would dream up.

To a retailer, the issue is a lot bigger than a 79-cent snack. Theft cost stores about $36.5 billion last year, according to the latest annual study by University of Florida criminologist Richard C. Hollinger. His 2008 study attributes about 42 percent of those losses to theft by employees. Stores often pass those costs on to us, in the price of goods.

People accused of retail theft by an employer – even if they're never prosecuted – may have trouble landing another job.

That's because stores may report these incidents to one of the commercial retail theft databases that companies turn to for background checks of potential hires.

The National Retail Mutual Association, for example, has collected more than 500,000 incidents of employee theft in its NRMA Retail Theft Database. NRMA accepts reports from client stores who have obtained a signed confession, a signed restitution agreement, a fully paid civil demand, a criminal conviction or other "documentary evidence."

Choicepoint, the giant data aggregator, says its Esteem workplace theft database collects reports from more than 75,000 retail stores that provide an employee's signed confession or proof of a theft conviction.

HireRight has an employee-theft database to which 500 member companies contribute a signed confession, evidence of a conviction, video surveillance or eyewitness statements.

NRMA doesn't keep reports on minors. HireRight and Choicepoint both keep reports on people 16 and over – in Choicepoint's case, as long as the incident involves over $5.

Information held in a retail theft database doesn't appear on credit reports. But like credit reports, these specialty consumer reports are covered under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Paul Stephens of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse says that means these protections apply:

You have a right to get a free copy of your report every 12 months (see below).

If someone declines to hire you because of a negative report, they must tell you where they got the negative info.

You have the right to demand that incorrect information be removed.

Negative information – with the possible exception of a criminal conviction – must be removed after seven years.

Consumer Wise If you suspect you may be the subject of a retail theft report, you can request a free copy from:

Choicepoint Esteem. You can request just an Esteem report, but if you request a "full file disclosure" you'll get all the reports Choicepoint has about you, including Esteem.

HireRight or call 1-800-381-0645.

Want more information on background checks and your rights? Visit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

E-mail your consumer questions to shharris@plaind.com. Follow Sheryl at twitter.com/consumerwriter.