At-Will Employment
You may have seen the term “at-will” in your employee manual, or your employer may have had you sign an “at-will” agreement. But what does at-will actually mean, and how may it affect you when you feel you have been wrongfully terminated?

In essence, at-will means that an employer may terminate an employee at any time with or without a reason. But at-will also protects the employee by ensuring that the employee can quit his or her job at any time with or without reason.

California assumes that all employment is at-will unless the employer and employee have agreed otherwise. Employment manuals and employment agreements that say employment is at-will simply provides extra protection for the employer.

The practical result of the at-will laws is that many people fired from their jobs are not wrongfully terminated, even if the employee feels that he or she did not do anything wrong. But there are exceptions to the “at-will” rule.

Contracts
One way to overcome “at-will” employment is to show the existence of a contract. Union employees are probably the most commonly contracted employees, but individual employees may also have contracts with their employers. Many of these contracts specifically limit the reasons that an employee may be fired. If an employer fires a contracted employee without cause, or for a reason outside of those listed in the contract, the employer can be sued for wrongful termination.

Discrimination
An employer is also not permitted to fire an employee if the employer’s reason is discriminatory. This means that the employer has wrongfully terminated an employee if a substantial part of the reason the employee was fired was because of the employee’s gender, race, religion, or national origin.

Public Policy
An employer is also not permitted to fire an employee if the employer’s reasons violate public policy. Public policy means the action is protected by a statute. One of the most common examples of this is what is generally referred to as a “whistleblower” statute. Whistleblower laws encourage employees to report wrongful conduct by their employers. Such wrongful conduct may be anything from illegally dumping toxic materials, to an employer failing to pay overtime. An employer may not terminate an employee because that employee followed the law and reported his or her supervisor. Another common public policy violation is an employee being terminated for taking leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). The Family Medical Leave Act provides employees time off for illness, or the birth of a child. An employee is wrongfully terminated if they are fired for taking time off under the FMLA.

If you feel you have been wrongfully terminated, please contact our offices at (800) 968-9930 or joeyoung@joeyounglaw.com for a free initial consultation.