Termination in Violation of Public Policy
Employees who are fired based upon their race, color, national origin, disability, age, sex, and sexual orientation may file a complaint with the EEOC or may also file a complaint of discrimination with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”). While this is an important step toward holding an employer accountable for wrongful termination, it is only one of the legal remedies that are available to you. An employee may also file a wrongful termination lawsuit in state or federal court. In some cases, it is possible to avoid litigation altogether. For example: suppose you were fired by a supervisor with a history of discrimination. The company might not even be aware that this supervisor has violated federal or state law. In this scenario, your lawyer may be able to notify the company and negotiate a fair resolution of your wrongful termination.
It can be difficult to prove discrimination in a wrongful termination case. An employer is unlikely to admit that an employee was fired for an illegal reason: instead, they will likely create some pretext for the firing. There might be accusations of poor performance or low sales. There might be complaints and accusations against the employee that were never addressed before the employee was fired. An employee’s disciplinary record might suddenly be a problem (even though the employee was never made aware of this or given an opportunity to correct the alleged problems). An experienced wrongful termination lawyer can still overcome these pre-textual reasons for termination. Even if the employer presents some pre-textual reasons for the firing, it still may be possible to prove that an employee was treated differently and that discrimination does, in fact, exist in that workplace.
