Any unjustified or groundless termination of employment by the employer or termination that goes against the contract is wrongful termination.
Needless to say, if an employer knows that the valid reason for terminating an employee is illegal, they will not say so outright. They will be sued right away. Instead, the employer will devise another acceptable reason for firing an employee. These reasons can be;
- Being behind schedule
- Poor work performance
- Lack of effort
- Being late to work
- Not up-to-scratch
- Disobedience
- Poor work ethic
Can I sue my boss for such acts?
If you are sure that you have indeed been terminated due to reasons other than what you’ve been told, for instance, the real reasons might include;
- Discrimination: Discrimination of one’s cast, color, creed, age, disability, gender, religion, nationality, etc., is made illegal by the government for all employers.
- Retaliation: A company can’t fire an employee for participating in a legal action. You cannot be fired for reporting or complaining about sexual harassment, filing discrimination charges, and/or joining a union. It is illegal to retaliate against an employee for engaging in one of these actions.
- Breach of a contract or a company’s policy
Then yes, you can hire a civil rights litigation attorney in California. The attorney will help devise an efficient and effective plan of action in order to safeguard your civil rights.
Employee’s claim:
If an employer is hiding the real reason for the termination of your employment to avoid any legal charges of the offense in question, you most likely have a case.
You, being the employee, can not simply go to the courtroom and present your case by telling the judge how hard you worked or how you were always on time. The judge will not consider arguments about whether or not you were a good worker. It is not for the court to assess if the employee’s work was genuinely substandard or if they actually broke the corporate rules.
The issue will never be about whether the employee worked hard enough or whether the termination was based upon reasoning and logic. Instead, the court of law will only be concerned with whether the termination was based upon “wrongful discrimination” or not.
At-will employment:
In the U.S., pretty much all employees are considered “at-will employees”.
At-will employment refers to the type in which the employer can terminate one’s job at any time and without any reason or warning, only when the termination is not based on illegal grounds.
When an employee is employed “at will,” courts will not allow the employee to sue for damages incurred as a result of the dismissal.
At will, employees can generally be dismissed without any formal hearing or a notice. However, you can consult with your attorney to figure out where you stand in these circumstances depending upon the particular facts of your job.
Proving unlawful termination of employment:
Mere disagreement or contradiction with your employer’s reason for termination will not prove to be helpful. You will need to hire an attorney that understands the severity of the matter and takes the necessary steps at the right time. Proving such a termination requires a lot of evidence and takes too much time to file a lawsuit which an attorney can assist you with.
