Many workers don’t particularly like their jobs, but they still need them. People have to earn an income to support themselves and their families. However unhappy they may be in their current position, they may feel frantic at the idea of losing their job suddenly.
Unfortunately, that is what happens for a small percentage of professionals. They come in for work one day or start packing up at the end of a shift, only to have a manager call them into the office. There, they find out that the company has decided to terminate their employment.
Many times, workers who lose their jobs have little or no recourse available to them. However, occasionally workers can establish that a termination may have been wrongful. What separates a legal and appropriate termination from a wrongful termination?
Wrongful terminations violate the law
Technically, most employment arrangements are at-will agreements. State law allows a worker to quit without notice and a company to fire an employee without advance warning. Companies usually do not have to justify their decisions to terminate employees.
Still, there are certain circumstances in which the decision to let a worker go might violate state and federal employment statutes. The first situation that may constitute wrongful termination involves discrimination. If a company fires a worker because of their disabling medical condition, sex, race, religion or other protected characteristic, then an employee might be able to take legal action.
Statements made during the employment arrangement or at the time of termination can support the belief that the company discriminated when making that decision. Layoffs and staffing reductions can also lead to discriminatory terminations when workers who share the same characteristics get let go more frequently than other employees.
The other main scenario that constitutes wrongful termination is retaliation. Workers have the right to assert themselves in certain scenarios. They can report unsafe working conditions, illegal company practices and harassment from coworkers.
They often have the right to discuss their wages and attempt to unionize. They can ask for unpaid leave and medical accommodations. When employers retaliate against workers by firing them after they engage in protected activities, the worker may have experienced a wrongful termination.
Learning about what employer actions technically violate employment statutes can help workers fight back after a wrongful termination. Those fired for illegal reasons can sometimes seek financial compensation or even get their jobs back.