Employment Lawyers Group Services

Wrongful Termination

Many employment terminations are unfair. However, merely because a job termination is unfair does not mean it is unlawful. Our job termination attorneys can advise you whether your employment termination was against the law.

Every week we receive many new client calls about job terminations that appear unfair. The employee may feel the employment termination was unfair because they were not given notice they would be fired, they were told they were laid off but they seemed to be replaced, they were accused of assault when another co-worker attacked them, or they were fired for asking for a raise. These examples of unfair job terminations are not necessarily examples of wrongful termination.

Termination of Employment

In order to sue for a job termination, the reason for termination must violate fundamental public policy. The California courts decided fundamental public policy is violated if an employee is fired, or forced to quit, due to a protected characteristic. Another way of putting this is discriminatory job terminations are illegal.

Job terminations are illegal if they are motivated by somebody’s age, ancestry, color, disability, Family Medical Leave, genetics, national origin, pregnancy, race, or sex. It is also unlawful to terminate an employee because they made a good faith complaint about these subject matters. The complaint may be due to the employee’s own discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or a co-worker.

Wrongful termination of employment also exists if an employee is fired because they complain about something illegal, refuse to do something illegal, demand a legal right such as to be properly paid wages, or they quit as a result. Many wrongful termination lawsuits involve whistle blowing.

Job Termination Law

California job termination laws come from cases, statutes, and the California Constitution. For instance, Article I Section I of the California Constitution provides a right to privacy. Case law has interpreted this Constitutional provision to mean an employee cannot be fired for complaining of privacy breaches such as surreptitious cameras in the employee restrooms.

For many years California case law has defined the parameters of employee rights laws. The cases have dealt with what wrongful termination is (Tameny v. Atlantic Richfield), how the Fair Employment and Housing Act relates to wrongful termination (Rojos), and how violated provisions of the California Labor Code may create wrongful termination rights (Phillips v. Gemini). California Employment laws pertaining to job terminations continue to evolve.

Our employment termination lawyers keep abreast on all developments in the field by reading multiple daily and monthly legal publications. Sometimes we do not have to because our successful appeal is the law that gets published for the day.