Whenever an employee gets fired for an illegal reason, he/she can sue the employer to recover damages.
If someone gets fired or suspended that involves a violation of law is known as wrongful termination. In California, the state government agency is the Department Of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).
When a federal law is filled with DFEH, the statute of limitations for wrongful termination California cases is 300 days after the date of termination.
Below are some signs which will help you understand if your firing was illegal:
Breach of Contract
If your employment is ‘at will,’ it means that you may get fired any time for a reason or no reason at all, as long as that reason is legal. There are some grave exceptions to at-will employment.
Whereas if you are not an at-will employee, you may have a job contract that states that you will be employed for a specific duration.
You may even have some written document that promises your continued employment for a certain duration.
When you have such contracts or documents in place you may file for wrongful termination. In this case, when the employer breaches the contract and fires you, this is a sign of illegal firing.
Discrimination
If your employment gets terminated based on discrimination – like your age, race, sex, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, disability, military veteran, or age is above 40, then your firing is illegal.
Employees in California get protected from discrimination by state and federal laws. If you have been fired because you are pregnant or you have some sort of disability, or because you have some political beliefs, then you can get in touch with wrongful termination lawyers.
Fair Employment And Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits employers that have five or more employees from discriminating against an employee on the above-mentioned protected classes.
Retaliation reason – Whistleblower, Sexual Harassment, Leaves, etc
Whistleblower
An employee has the right to report a violation of law or other misconduct by the employer to the government or their supervisor.
Employees who are suspicious that there has been a violation of state or federal law, such as discrimination, safety violations, or the employer has made false statements to get money, can or has reported this to the government.
If an employee feels that he has got terminated after that, then this could be a sign that your firing was illegal.
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment comes under prohibited discrimination and is against law at the workplace. The employer must provide a workplace free of sexual harassment.
An employee reports or complains about sexual harassment directed at self or to someone else, or even participates as a witness in sexual harassment investigation and gets terminated after that.
This could very well be a sign of illegal termination. If you have been in a similar situation, you should read about Kingsley workplace sexual harassment settlements and fight back.
Leaves
There are many situations in which an employee can take time off of work. An employee can use accrued sick leaves for diagnosis, care, or self-treatment, or to take care of someone in the family.
An employee can take maternity leaves, or when he/she gets injured they have the right to take protected leaves.
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allow most employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid family or medical leave each year.
If an employer terminates the employee for exercising this right, that will get termed as wrongful termination.
An employee gets terminated after exercising this right then this is also a sign of illegal firing.
Violation of Public Property
In a situation where the employer asks an employee to commit an illegal act on the job, like signing a fraudulent document or asking the employee to do something unethical to the competitor to win a contract, or falsify insurance claims or lie to government officials.
The employee denies doing so and gets fired post that. This is a sign that the firing was illegal.
If you think you have got terminated or fired illegally, it is crucial to contact an employment law attorney as soon as possible.
The attorney can file a wrongful termination claim to get compensation, but you will have to prove that the reason for the termination was illegal under state or federal law.
____________________________________________________
Some other articles you might find of interest:
Understand how you can maximize your time to grow your business:
Time Is Money And Your Most Valuable Resource. Use it Wisely to Build Your Business
Looking for effective ways to drive and increase traffic to your startup website?
SEO Traffic Guide To Boost Your Blog Rankings
Looking for effective ways to drive and increase traffic to your startup website?
3 Top Reasons Why Startups Fail and How Not to Become a Victim
