How do you know if you were fired from your job legally or illegally? Employers are generally free to fire employees at any time and for any reason (as long as the reason isn’t illegal). Nevertheless, there are some very important exceptions to the at-will rule-and legal remedies that you may be able to pursue on your wrongful termination.
Promissory Notes
Likely, you are not an at-will employee if you have a written contract or some other written statement that guarantees you job security. An employment contract may include language stating that only good cause or reasons specified in the contract can justify your dismissal.
It may be in your offer letter, or you may have some other written document that promises your continued employment. In that case, you could enforce these promises in court.
Intended Promises
Another exception to the at-will rule is the presence of an implicit employment contract; a contract based on what your employer said and did. Since most businesses are wary of making assurances of continuous employment, this can be difficult to substantiate.
Employers who pledged “long term employment” or employment for a specified amount of time, or who set forth precise types of disciplinary measures in an employee manual, have been found to have made implicit contracts.
Courts consider several factors when determining whether an inferred employment agreement applies, such as:
- Your employment duration
- Promotions in a regular manner
- Performance reviews that have been positive in the past
- A guarantee that your employment would continue
- The extent to which your employer violated a usual employment practice in firing you like not giving you a warning.
- If you were promised long-term employment when you were hired.
Violating the Good Faith and Fair Dealing Principles
It may be possible to sue your employer for a breach of good faith and fair dealing if they acted unfairly. In court, employers have been found to have violated the duty of good faith by:
- Taking steps to prevent employees from collecting sales commissions by terminating or transferring them
- Giving employees false information about their chances of promotion and pay increases
- Creating false reasons for terminating an employee when the real aim is to replace that employee with someone who will work for less money
- A job that involves traveling through dangerous neighborhoods late at night, or soft-pedaling the difficult aspects of that job,
- Continually sending employees on distant, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable assignments to coerce them into quitting without having to pay severance or other benefits that are due.
At-will employment is sometimes subject to an exception for “good faith and fair dealing”. Furthermore, some states only permit employees to sue a company for breach of good faith and fair dealing if there is a valid employment contract.
Infractions of Public Policy
In general, it is unlawful to terminate an employee for causes recognized by society as illegitimate.
Most courts require that there be a specific law describing the public policy before wrongful termination claims can be accepted. Employment laws in most states and the federal government specify certain employment actions that undermine public policy. Examples include firing an employee for:
- Reporting a company policy of not paying accrued vacation pay and commissions
- Participating on a jury while on leave from work
- Absence from work to vote
- Participating in the military or National Guard
- Informing authorities of some wrongdoing that harms the public (whistleblowing).
Employees can also be protected from termination if they are serving as election officers or volunteer firefighters, for instance. There are also several law cases holding that an employer can not fire you due to the exercise of a legal remedy or right, such as filing a workers’ compensation claim or reporting a violation of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA).
Unjust Treatment
Discrimination is unlawful, and organizations may not terminate even at-will employees for illegal grounds. If you suspect you were terminated because of your race, color, national origin, sexuality, religion, age, handicap, pregnancy, or genetic information, you should contact an employment lawyer as soon as possible.
Discrimination lawsuits are subject to stringent time constraints and rules; for example, before you may pursue your employer in court, you must first file a discrimination complaint with a state or federal body.
A Retaliatory Move
Employers are not allowed to retaliate against employees who participate in constitutionally recognized activities. You must establish all of the following to show that you lost your job as a result of your employer’s retaliation:
- You were doing something lawful, like submitting a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or formally protesting to your boss about harassment or discrimination.
- That behavior forced your employer to take action—for example, you were punished shortly after filing a sexual harassment complaint.
- Your boss’s behavior had adverse implications for you, such as being fired, denied a promotion, or receiving an unjustified poor performance review.
Falsehood
In some situations, an employer’s tactics while terminating a worker are so deceptive and incorrect that they are considered fraud. Hiring fraud (where claims are made and broken) and employment fraud (where promises are made and violated) are both widespread (such as when an employee is induced to resign).
- You must show all of the following to prove that your job loss was caused by fraud:
- Your boss lied to you about something.
- Someone within authority was aware of the false representation;
- The false representation was known to someone in authority;
- The representation served as a basis for decision making, and
- The representation caused you to harm in some way.
It’s hard to prove fraud unless you can show that your employer intentionally tried to trick you. To do so, documentation of the misrepresentation must be provided of when, how, and by whom it occurred.
False Accusations
A defamation lawsuit is intended to protect a person’s good image and reputation in society. To demonstrate that defamation contributed to your job loss, you must prove that your previous employer made false and defamatory remarks about you during the process of ending your employment or later providing references, which affected your chances of getting new work.
To claim for defamation, you must often demonstrate that your former employer:
- Made a slanderous remark about you
- Uttered the remark with hatred
- Spoke or written that comment to at least one other person, and that communication injured you in some way—for example, by causing you to lose your employment or by blocking a future employer from hiring you.
To win a defamation lawsuit, you must demonstrate that the hurtful words were more than mere watercooler gossip. Defamation has to be based on factual information, and it has to be false.
Infractions of Whistle-Blowing
Legislation protecting whistleblowers allows them to report unlawful or harmful activities. Whistle-blowers may be protected in some states if they say their employer broke any law, regulation, or ordinance. Whistle-blower protection in other states is only available when employees report that their employer has broken certain laws, such as environmental laws or labor laws.
If you have been wrongfully and illegally terminated by your boss for whistleblowing or any other act, you have the right to pursue a lawsuit against your boss. An employment lawyer at Siman Law Firm in Los Angeles can help you in guiding that whether your case is strong enough to file a lawsuit against your boss and to get you some compensation.