All The Wrong Ways To Be Terminated, And How To Make It Right

Wrongful termination is not a lawsuit you hear a lot about these days, yet people are still being fired for the wrong reasons. It is actually quite surprising when you are terminated and a reason is not given. The truth is, employers do all they can to avoid giving a reason because their reason may be interpreted as illegal under the law. If you think you were terminated for all of the wrong reasons, here is how to make it right.

Discrimination

If you are gay/lesbian, a race other than Caucasian, an immigrant, close to retirement age, fresh out of high school, etc., and you are fired from a job, it may be discrimination. You have to prove that other employees like you were fired for the same reasons or fired on the same grounds for termination. Discrimination is very difficult to prove unless you can find other people who can vouch for your discrimination claim or you can show that the employer has a long history of firing people based on a particular trait or characteristic that is protected under discrimination laws. If you can do that, then your lawyer can sue the employer for wages and court fees.

Retaliation

Whistleblowers are people who report unsafe, dangerous, or illegal practices within the daily operations of a company. They are supposed to be protected and kept anonymous under the law. However, if your employer figured out that the whistleblower was you, and then found a trumped-up reason to fire you, you can sue. Employer retaliation for any reason is illegal, regardless of what the employer's reason may be. Under the law, the employer must offer you your job back, and/or compensate you with enough pay to make it worth your while not to return to work. 

Making Excuses to Terminate to Avoid Paying Higher Wages, Benefits, or Retirement Funds

In recent decades, there were a few accounts where the owners of their companies had embezzled the retirement funds of hundreds to thousands of employees. The financial contributions to retirement accounts for all of these employees were wiped out by the embezzlers. The employees had nothing, but they did not know that until some of them were fired right before they were expecting to retire and receive their pensions in full.

The reasons for being fired seemed fabricated and ridiculous. Upon closer investigation as to why they were terminated after working for these companies for decades, the embezzled money was discovered. These employees were cheated of their pensions and then fired to cover it up. If something like that seems to have happened to you, sue for every penny you ever invested into your pension.