There is no right or wrong way to feel when you lose your job, but relief is not one of the more common emotions associated with the termination of employment. If getting fired from your job feels like a relief, then your work environment must have been miserable. You might be glad never to have to work at that awful place again with those awful people, but unless you find another job quickly, the financial stress of not having a job will eventually be at least as bad as the stress you had to live with every day while working there. Maybe your employer was just as wrong to fire you as they were to mistreat you while you were working there.
In fact, maybe the termination of your employment was part of a pattern of your employer belittling you or resisting your efforts to exercise your legal rights. It is sometimes legal for employers to fire employees for no reason. Likewise, some reasons that employers give for firing employees are stinky but not illegal, such as if your personalities are incompatible or if you support rival sports teams. By contrast, discrimination is always an illegal reason for an employer to terminate an employment relationship.
The Boulder wrongful termination discrimination lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you if your employer fired you for a discriminatory reason.
Boulder Employment Discrimination Lawyer
Is employment discrimination a bulletin board in the staff breakroom with sexist cartoons pinned to it, or is it something dramatic like an employer firing an employee and seeing him off with a racist tirade? It could be either of those, as well as so many other possible manifestations of employment discrimination. You have a case for an employment discrimination claim if your employer took an adverse action against you because of a protected characteristic of yours; the law recognizes a variety of adverse actions and an array of protected characteristics. For example, any of these counts as an adverse action:
- Persistently belittling, harassing, bullying, or intimidating you, which creates a hostile work environment
- Negative performance reviews
- Undesired changes to your job duties, schedule, or work location,
- Denial of promotions or raises for which you are eligible
- Demotion or reduction of pay
- Termination of employment
Employers are within their rights to take adverse actions against employees if the adverse action is a response to poor job performance or misconduct by the employee. The adverse action is only discrimination if it is based on a protected characteristic of the employee, such as the employee’s age, sex, race, disability, religion, national origin, or sexual orientation. Country of citizenship is also a protected characteristic in most cases.
Some government jobs are open only to U.S. citizens, but for any other job, employers must treat employees equally, regardless of whether they are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or have a visa category that allows them to work legally in the United States. Your task in filing an employment claim is not simply to prove that you possess a protected characteristic and that an employer took an adverse action against you; rather, you must prove that the protected characteristic was the basis for the adverse action.
In other words, not all discrimination involves termination of employment, and not all cases of wrongful termination of employment involve discrimination. If your employer fired you or terminated your contract early, and you think that a protected characteristic such as your race or gender was the reason, you should discuss the matter with a Boulder employment discrimination lawyer.
Do Not Be Fooled by That Separation Agreement
Employers sometimes offer severance pay when they lay off employees or terminate an employee’s contract ahead of schedule. If you know that your company is going out of business or downsizing, it might be a relief if your employer offers you a severance package. It is better than simply losing your job and having nothing but the money from the last pay period you worked to keep you going until you find a new job.
There is always a catch with severance pay, though. You can only get your severance pay if you sign a separation agreement. The terms of separation agreements vary from one agreement to another, but one of the conditions is always that the employee waives the right to file a wrongful termination of employment lawsuit. Therefore, before you sign the separation agreement, you should ask yourself and your lawyer not only whether discrimination was involved in the termination of your employment but also if you have any other reason to sue for wrongful termination. For example, did your employer breach your employment contract? Did your employer fire you in retaliation for engaging in a protected activity just as taking FAMLI leave or joining a labor union?
What to Do if Your Employer Terminates the Employment Relationship for Discriminatory Reasons
The laws governing discrimination claims involving wrongful termination of employment are the same as those governing other types of employment discrimination. Whether you quit, got fired, or are still working at your job, you must take your discrimination claim to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before you can bring your case to court. The deadline for contacting the EEOC is 45 days after your employer’s most recent discriminatory action against you. If the discrimination was so bad that your employer fired you, that means 45 days after your employer notified you of the termination of your employment. It is best to contact a Boulder employment discrimination lawyer before your first meeting with the EEOC. Having a lawyer represent you in your dealings with the EEOC will increase the chances that the EEOC will approve your lawsuit for proceeding to court.
Contact HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, About Wrongful Termination of Employment
The Boulder employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys, LLP, can counsel you about wrongful termination of employment based on discrimination. Call the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
