Job is utmost essential to meet day-to-day requirements like food, clothing and shelter. And also to meet other demands like paying off electricity bills, house rents, school fees and medical bills. It is very unfortunate to lose job especially if the employee has terminated him or her in an illegal manner.
Wrongful termination can be a shocking experience that can have a bad affect on the employee’s career as well as individuality.
An employee can file wrongful termination petition against his or her employer if he was fired or sacked from his or her job on illegal grounds as affirmed in the State or Federal Labor laws. Then the employer may have to pay financial claims or some other compensation as stated in the company’s severance package. The laws provide both the employers and employees, legal and just resolutions of their disputes as regards to employment termination.
The employees working under the Employment At-Will Agreement may have difficulty in filing wrongful termination cases since this agreement is not made at the time of contract and the work tenure is indefinite. The employees are free to leave the organization at their own will without facing any consequences. The employers have the freedom to fire their workers at any time they wish without any risk of facing allegations in the court. Even though the law seems to favor the employer at the time of termination, there are various situations where this termination would be considered illegal and lead to a court case.
The employer/employee relationship is never ‘At-Will’ as long as there is an agreement between the two parties. There is an employee handbook, which provides the situations in which an employee can be terminated. Most of the organizations practice this. Besides the employee handbook, reasons of employee termination can be provided in other writings such as inter office memos and company guidelines. The employee can claim breach of contract and this can be valid when an employer violates against the rules.
Wrongful termination can rise out of another issue. Sometimes an implied contract is created without any mutual agreement or any words being spoken. This contract has an agreement that the employee may not be terminated. But this contract depends on factors such as personnel policies, service longevity, actions or communications by the employer implying continued employment, and the practices in industry in which the employee is engaged.
If the employer decides to discharge or demote an employee on fair grounds then there is a good cause for termination. But if the employer decides to demote on trivial basis, unrelated to business, then this is wrongful termination. The employer has no right to terminate an employee based on sex, race, color, religion or nationality.
An employee has a valid declaration when there is wrongful termination. The employee is entitled to get compensation.
Even in lawful termination, the employee has the right to sue for damages on the basis of employer’s history. Some employers deliberately misuse their employees and then terminate their employment even before the employee is aware of the rights being violated.
As per the California Labor Code employees are entitled to meal and rest periods. The employee as per the law may collect certain penalties. The employer has to bear the penalties if he/she goes against the law. If an employer terminates an employee on unjust grounds, then the employer has to pay all the outstanding dues to the terminated employee. Even in the case of self-resignation the employer has to pay the departed employee. The employer who does not abide by these rules will have to incur penalties, which can go to the extent of paying the employee’s salary for almost a month.
Even after an employee/employer relationship ends, employees have certain rights to compensation apart from their last salary received. Violating the laws by termination of unfair means gives rise to indemnity, as does a wrongful termination.
An employee can be terminated on several grounds. Some common reasons where an employee gets fired can be:
- A personal conflict with the employer/ colleagues due to which the employee is getting fired
- A breach of contract for violation
- Somebody else is recruited in the employee’s place and so he/she is sacked
- Favoritism for somebody else so that the employee can be sacked
- Sexual harassment
- Discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion
- The employee reports a unlawful activity in the company
The wrongful termination can be minimized to the fullest extent. The employee should keep a hard copy of his/her positive employment review. A copy of performance review must be kept. The employee should keep any written documentation that highlights his/her performance. If the employee has been wrongly terminated then he/she can seek legal advice and win the case.