COLUMBIA--A bill that would give South Carolina companies the right to fire employees without cause took a step backward Thursday as supporters pulled it from the floor.

The "employment at will" bill backed by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce seemed headed for final approval until supporters realized that a seemingly innocuous amendment tacked on last week raised a red flag, so to speak.

Facing filibusters and more stealth amendments on the Senate floor, supporters opted to send the bill back to committee.

Sen. Robert Ford, one of the bill's more active opponents, declared it dead Thursday. After the measure was moved to a subcommittee he sits on, Ford left the Senate chamber and gloated to business lobbyists that "We won. We won!"

"You won a battle," one lobbyist said to him.

Stabbing a finger at the lobbyists, the Charleston Democrat crowed, "Look, they're about to cry."

This has been one of the more contentious pieces of legislation this session, pitting employers against employees.

The bill would refine state law, which allows employers to terminate non-contract employees without cause, as long as the firing doesn't violate discrimination laws or employee rights. Although South Carolina already is an at-will state, supporters say some court rulings in wrongful-firing lawsuits have muddied the law, sending conflicting messages on whether employee handbooks constitute contracts.

Proponents say the measure would strengthen South Carolina's reputation as a pro-business state. Opponents say it would leave employees with no job security.

The amendment that at least temporarily derailed the fast-track legislation was sponsored by Sen. John "Jakie" Knotts, R-West Columbia. It seemed innocent enough, prohibiting employers from ordering their workers to do anything illegal, unethical or salacious. When it came up for a vote following a long Democratic filibuster, most of the weary supporters of the bill said, "Sure, OK."

This week, bill sponsors discovered they'd approved an amendment that would bar employers from firing people over issues involving civil rights, such as displaying a Confederate flag.

At-will sponsors wanted to remove the amendment and pass the measure, which already has House approval, on final reading. But President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said he'd rally support against it without the Knotts provision.

In the last two years, McConnell has stepped into two disputes over employees fired or reprimanded for having Confederate flag stickers on their lunch boxes or car bumpers.

"People have a right to have anything they want on their bumpers," McConnell said. "You can't fire them for that."

"If it comes up again," McConnell added, "there will have to be a consensus."

Such harmony has been difficult to come by.

State and local government employees were exempted from the bill, and opponents called that a ploy to attract support. Ford said that aside from 400,000 public employees in the state, the bill would leave 1.4 million workers subject to their bosses' whims. That observation swayed many initial at-will backers, Ford said, and returning the bill to committee likely will be a death sentence.

"They realized that this was going to affect their supporters," Ford said. "This says the people who make $50,000 or $60,000 and drive an SUV could drive that truck home one night and the next morning have no job and no grievance (procedure)."

Supporters say their bloc is solid. Bill sponsor Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said the specialized nature of the law made it important for the Senate to make sure the language of the bill was precise before final passage.

Martin argued that the free speech provisions of Knotts' amendment are unneeded because those rights are covered in other laws. Rather than fight the amendment on the floor, Martin requested the return to committee, saying that was a better arena for making technical changes. Martin said Ford's report of the bill's death is greatly exaggerated.

"We have every intention of bringing it back and feel reasonably certain it will report out of committee," Martin said.

But there's another hurdle. Besides Ford, the five-member subcommittee in possession of the bill also counts McConnell as a member.