Any job loss can prove to be a financial and personal setback. People often take terminations quite personally. They may also struggle to afford basic expenses until they find a new job elsewhere. Given that California is an at-will employment state, people often assume that employers can fire them for any reason whatsoever.
Technically, at-will employment regulations do make it legal to end an employment agreement over dissatisfaction with the worker’s performance, company financial issues or no reason whatsoever. However, it is still illegal to fire a worker as a form of retaliation or discrimination. Companies engaging in wrongful employment practices often try to avoid culpability by hiding their misconduct.
What can workers do to prove that their employer tried to cover up a wrongful termination?
Review the company’s explanation
Employers often give an explanation for the decision to terminate a specific worker. An evaluation of that explanation can sometimes provide insight into the true motive behind the firing or layoff. For example, an employer citing behavioral issues or attitude concerns might have taken issue with a worker asserting their rights or informing their co-workers about relevant employment laws. Sometimes, the justification a company provides for terminating a worker can indicate that the organization may have retaliated or discriminated.
Consider the timing
Frequently, retaliatory firings occur shortly after workers engage in protected activities. Maybe they reported harassment or expressed concerns about what may have been safety violations. Terminations that occur shortly after a worker asserts themselves might be wrongful. Especially in scenarios where a company seemingly shifts its attitude about a worker’s job performance or the enforcement of certain company rules immediately before firing a worker, those changes may be a sign of a retaliatory or discriminatory firing.
Look for signs of a pattern
Wrongful terminations based on discrimination often affect more than one worker. Reviewing exactly who the company decided to terminate can provide important insight for the workers affected by that decision. When many of the workers share the same characteristics or those who keep their positions all share characteristics, that can be an indicator that the company considered inappropriate factors when deciding who to terminate and who to retain.
Keeping records of interactions with human resources and management can help those who experience wrongful termination prove that there was something questionable about their employer’s decision-making process. Those who suspect that a company fired them for an illegal reason may be able to take legal action to reclaim their jobs or hold the company financially accountable for violating their rights.