Fear of losing your job is a powerful motivator, especially in today’s unsettled economy. Fear can keep good, honest people from reporting harassment or discrimination in the workplace. Fear can keep employees silent in the face of employer wrongdoing.
An employer who wrongfully terminates an employee may face statutory penalties or may be made to pay damages (including a severance package or unemployment compensation) to cover the employee’s lost wages and possibly additional expenses. In some cases, an employer may be forced to pay punitive damages (monetary reward to the plaintiff as punishment for the defendant’s wrongful act).
Wrongful termination claims on the part of the employee often go hand in hand with discrimination or harassment accusations. Claims of employer retaliation are one of the most common reasons for employment discrimination lawsuits, qui tam claims after a whistleblower is terminated, and other conflicts.
Wrongful termination can also involve non-discriminatory actions. These can include cases such as whistleblower retaliation or disciplinary actions. If your federal or state employer does not have just cause to discharge you from your job, the wrongful termination lawyers on LookupLegal can help.
Below are just a few examples of wrongful termination under the laws of California and many other states:
- Terminating you after you reported that the conditions at work were unsafe
- Public service: Being fired as a result of undertaking jury duty or voting is illegal.
- Terminating you for a bogus reason but the real reason is race discrimination, disability discrimination, age discrimination or any other type of discrimination
- Policies: Employers cannot legally fire workers in violation of their own termination policies.
- Terminating you in retaliation against you for supporting the complaint of someone else for sexual harassment or discrimination
- Terminating you in retaliation for you filing a workers’ compensation claim or for taking medical leave or maternity leave
- Illegal acts: Employees cannot be fired for refusal to commit an illegal act at the behest of their employer.
- Terminating you after reporting that you or someone else was sexually harassed at work
- Terminating you after you reported your employer for illegal conduct, or what you believed to be illegal conduct, to a government agency
With wrongful termination cases, it is not enough for a person to prove that he/she was fired, he/she must be able to prove that his/her termination was in fact wrongful and illegal. An employee must be able to prove that he/she was treated unfairly and subject to bias, otherwise, it is very unlikely that he/she will be successful in any court of law.
A wrongful termination case does not always involve being fired outright. Sometimes employers try to hide their tracks by bullying employees into quitting, an act known as constructive discharge. Other employers try to intimidate their workers by firing anyone who speaks up about unfair conditions.
More importantly, an employer cannot retaliate against an employee for reporting or opposing discrimination or harassment of any type, even if it is on behalf of another employee. An employee who is unlawfully terminated or is forced to quit because the employer made it difficult to work there, can have a claim for “wrongful termination.”
Civil Rights Statutes
Certain civil rights statutes prevent employers from terminating or taking adverse action against an employee for the following reasons:
- Discrimination on the basis of an employee’s race, color, national origin, religion or sex (Civil Rights Act of 1964)
- Termination for reporting sexual harassment or discrimination
- Discrimination under the Age Discrimination Act (if the employer has more than twenty employees)
- Disability covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This includes termination for demanding “reasonable accommodation” of a disabled worker.
- Requests for FMLA unpaid leave for the birth or adoption of a child, or to care for a child, spouse, or parent suffering serious health condition (Family Medical Leave Act).
Federal and most state laws protect employees from “wrongful termination,” a term that refers to firing or laying off an employee or forcing the employee to quit or retire for unlawful reasons. These are challenging cases because it is necessary to prove that the employer’s intent or pattern of behavior violated the law. If you feel that you were wrongly terminated, it is important to discuss your situation with an experienced lawyer as soon as possible and give your counsel the opportunity to conduct a thorough investigation and build the strongest case possible on your behalf.
