When your alarm rings in the morning, but your bed is so warm compared to the cold outside, it is natural to wish that you did not have to get up and go to work. Not working, being able to stay in bed for as long as you wanted to, no longer seems as nice when your employer makes the unilateral decision for you to no longer come to work, or worse, when you were the one who quit, but it was only because your employer made you an offer you could not refuse.
The natural impulse when this happens is to pick yourself up and look for another job, which you should do, because the sooner you find a new job, the less time there will be for your finances to spiral downward. Even as you search for another job, or even start working at your new job and gradually put the unpleasant chapter of your life, the one where your employer unjustifiably or incomprehensibly fired you, behind you, it might be worthwhile to seek compensation from your former employer for wrongful termination of employment. In some cases, employers have the right to fire employees arbitrarily, but if the termination of your employment is a matter of discrimination, retaliation, or breach of contract, you are on solid ground to recover compensation for wrongful termination.
The Boulder wrongful termination lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP can help you if your employer fired you for an illegal reason.
When is it Fine for Employment Relationships to End Unexpectedly?
What do people mean when they say that most Americans have little or no job security? They are probably talking about at-will employment, where the employee does not have an employment contract that guarantees they will keep the job until a certain date. Employment contracts also sometimes guarantee compensation if the employer ends the contractual relationship ahead of schedule, and some of them even include a bonus to be paid at the end of the contract period. By contrast, in an at-will employment relationship, either party can end the relationship at any time. You are always free to quit, and your employer is always free to fire you, at least in theory. Even in an at-will employment relationship, it is against the law for employers to fire employees for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons.
When the decision to end the employment relationship originates with the employer, employers sometimes offer laid-off employees a severance package. The best severance packages continue to pay the employee’s salary for several months after the employee’s last day of work, and they also continue health insurance benefits, usually for even longer than the residual salary payments. A severance package is not a freebie, though. You can only get the compensation if you sign a separation agreement, in which you waive your right to sue your employer for wrongful termination of employment. A Boulder employment lawyer can help you decide whether your case is strong enough that it is worth walking away from a severance offer to file a wrongful termination of employment lawsuit.
Wrongful Termination of Employment and Breach of Contract
If you have an employment contract, you are at least safe from claims by your employer that your employer terminated your contract just because. A contract indicates that the employment will continue until the expiration date listed on the contract. The more detailed a contract is, the better, so it is to your advantage if the contract lists reasons why the employer might terminate the contract early, like the employee’s failure to meet certain benchmarks by certain dates or force majeure events that cause the employer, and everyone else in the employer’s industry, major financial hardships. This way, there will be more specific information available that the employer fired you under circumstances not justified by the contract.
When an employer offers severance pay, it does not automatically mean that there was no breach of contract or that it was not a case of wrongful termination of employment. Sometimes employers use severance pay as a cover for wrongful termination because employees cannot collect their severance pay unless they sign a separation agreement. One of the conditions of a separation agreement is that the employee waives the right to sue the employer for wrongful termination of employment. If your employer wants to replace your employment contract with a separation agreement and get out of the contractual relationship early, you should review the situation with a lawyer before you sign, no matter how much severance pay the employer is offering you.
Wrongful Termination and Employment Discrimination
Either in an at-will relationship or when there is an employment contract, employment discrimination is always against the law, including but not limited to when it involves termination of employment. Employment discrimination is when termination of the employment relationship, or another adverse action, is based on a protected characteristic of the employee. Examples of protected characteristics include age, sex, religion, race, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, and pregnancy. You should not sign a separation agreement if you believe that a protected characteristic was a factor in your employer’s decision to fire you.
Wrongful Termination and Employer Retaliation
Employer retaliation, which is where the adverse action is a response to the employee engaging in a protected activity, is also always against the law. A protected activity is an exercise of the employee’s legal rights, but employers sometimes retaliate or threaten to retaliate to discourage employees from engaging in protected activities. Examples of protected activities include joining a labor union, filing a workers’ compensation claim, requesting FAMLI leave, asking for reasonable accommodations for a disability, or reporting misconduct that you have witnessed at your place of employment.
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. Call the employment lawyers at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP in Boulder, Colorado, to set up a consultation.
