4 Things to Know About Unlawful Termination
Were you suddenly terminated from your job? Depending on your circumstances, you may be the victim of unlawful termination. Here are some tips and advice.
At-Will Employees
Most employees will not have a claim for wrongful termination against their former employer. This is because most workers are at-will employees. This means that their employer can hire and fire them at will. However, there are common exceptions to this, as you’ll see in the following paragraphs.
Breach of Contract
If there was a contract that guaranteed employment to you for a certain amount of time, then your termination would be illegal. This contract doesn’t have to be a written one. If you can prove that there was an implied or verbal contract, the courts may also deem the termination unlawful.
Breach of Good Faith
Sometimes, the courts will consider a termination wrongful if there was a breach of good faith. This is harder to prove, but it applies to certain situations. For example, if you were fired so that you can’t collect sales commissions, or you were fired a few days before retiring even though you’ve been a model employee for many years so that your employer wouldn’t have to pay for your retirement, that would likely be called wrongful termination.
Breach of Public Policy
There are certain reasons for which even at-will employees cannot be fired. This varies from state to state, but there are some that are universal. For example, if you were fired based on your sex, race, age, religion, etc (and in some places, your sexual orientation), that is illegal. Other breaches of public policy would be stuff such as being fired for taking off time to vote or in retaliation for reporting illegal activities.
For help with fighting an unlawful termination, contact us today!
