Orange County Employment Lawyers

Employment Discrimination

The law prevents employers from discriminating against their employees based on certain protected characteristics. If you are a member of one of these protected classes, your employer cannot treat you differently than other employees who are not a member of the class. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lists the classes that are protected under federal law:

California state law has additional protections that extend to other forms of gender discrimination in the workplace. The Department of Fair Employment and Housing enforces laws that protect transgender workers in California.

Wrongful Termination

Though employers have wide discretion to fire workers for cause, there are certain circumstances in which the law prohibits an employee from being fired. This is known as “wrongful termination.” Wrongful termination can occur if the employee is a protected whistleblower and is being fired in retaliation. Termination is also wrongful if it is discrimination against a member of a protected class. When an employee is fired because of their race, national origin, color, religion, age, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity, they have a claim for wrongful termination. An employee may also have a wrongful termination claim if they are being fired as a result of their disability, provided they can still perform the essential functions of their job with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Most employers know better than to tell an employee they are being fired for an illegal reason. Instead, they are likely to provide some other reason to make it seem as if the employee is being fired for good cause. This is what makes wrongful termination cases so difficult. Employers have entire HR departments and legal teams that can defend any termination decision. If you suspect that you have been fired for an unlawful reason, you need to get an employment lawyer fighting on your side right away.