Most people feel awful when they get terminated from their jobs, but when a termination happens without a valid and lawful reason, it can be particularly mortifying. Not only that, but the wrongfully terminated worker will face the challenge of quickly finding employment before his or her cash reserves run out.
If you suspect you were terminated unlawfully, review the following list to determine if your case fits one of these common reasons for wrongful terminations to occur:
Termination due to discrimination: State and federal laws prohibit employers from terminating their employees because of the race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation and other protected reasons.
Retaliation: When an employee exercises his or her employment rights by complaining about unlawful employment practices, an employer may not fire the employee in retaliation.
Breach of contract: Terminated employees may want to review their employment contracts to determine if their termination happened in a way that conforms to their contractual agreements.
Protected leave: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) protects a worker’s right to take time off in case of a family medical emergency and for other reasons, such as bringing a new baby into the home. Some employers unlawfully terminate employees who choose to exercise their FMLA privileges.
Failure to provide reasonable accommodations: Employers must provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities. Failure to provide accommodations could render an employee unable to do his or her job – resulting in a termination for lack of performance. This is unlawful.
Were you fired from your employment under unlawful circumstances? Regardless of how it happened, if you feel your termination was unfair, you might want to look deeper into the matter to determine if you were the victim of a wrongful termination.
