Wrongful Termination
You work for a company for several years, loyally committed to showing up on time to put your best efforts for your employer every working day. You spend time away from your loved ones doing your best to earn an income to put food on the table and a roof over your head.
Then one day a change occurs with your employment. Maybe you witness your boss sexually harassing a coworker and you report this to HR. Maybe you get injured while on-the-job and file a workers compensation claim or request an accommodation for your disability. Maybe you need time off work because you became pregnant. Maybe you witness illegal safety violations and report it to your manager. Maybe you experienced racist discrimination against you and raise attention to it.
And because of this change, your employer fires you. What’s worse? Your employer makes up a bogus reason as to why they fired you, when you both know the real reason why you are now out of a job is the issue you brought up to them that they did not want you to bring up.
We lawyers call this wrongful termination, i.e. your employer retaliated against you for exercising your legal rights as an employee. When this happens, your employer has violated California’s employment laws, and owes you several categories of monetary damages for their illegal retaliatory discharge. Depending on which laws your employer violates is determined on a case-by-case basis, as different rights are implicated for different factual circumstances.
Our office represents employees who have been terminated after
- Requesting accommodations for their disabilities under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”);
- Reporting or experiencing discrimination based on a protected class or characteristic under FEHA (such as race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, or veteran or military status);
- Requesting medical leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) or California Family Rights Act (“CFRA”);
- Reporting illegal wage theft;
- Reporting Occupational Safety and Health violations; and so on.
If these circumstances sound similar to what you have been involved in, call Inder & Griffin Partners LLP, today for a free case evaluation!