One might think that it cannot get any worse after you’re wrongfully terminated. Unfortunately, it can.
Losing a job, per se, is one of life’s most devastating experiences for anyone. But being fired or being forced to quit your job under unlawful circumstances is not the only bad thing that can happen to you.
Even if you have been wrongfully terminated, you’re entitled to certain rights under California employment law. Today, our wrongful termination lawyer Matthew A Kaufman has outlined four employee rights guaranteed to outgoing employees.
Unless you’re an at-will employee, you have a right to receive reasonable notice of termination. Employers in California are required to provide employees with notice of termination if an employee is terminated under contract and is part of a union or collective bargaining agreement.
However, most employees in Los Angeles and all across California are employed on an “at-will” basis, which means employers can fire employees for any reason or no reason at all and are not required to give notice. Under some employment contracts, employers are required to give two weeks’ notice prior to termination.
Every case has employment circumstances, which is why it’s highly advised to speak to a wrongful termination lawyer in order to find out if your employer violated the employment agreement by failing to give you notice.
Unless you and the employer agreed that you would not sue the employer after your termination (the agreement that is part of many employment contracts nowadays), you have a right to file a lawsuit against the employer alleging wrongful termination.
However, in order to bring a lawsuit, you will need to have solid evidence to prove that the employer fired you for any of the reasons protected by law:
Under California employment law, you have a right to be protected against constructive discharge, which occurs when an employee is forced to quit his or her job because the employer has made it impossible to continue working.
Creating a hostile environment or unbearable conditions includes discrimination, sexual harassment, mistreatment, changing company policies, changing work conditions, reducing pay, or other non-work-related factors.
It’s not unheard of when employers in Los Angeles choose to harass an employee in order to force him to quit instead of simply terminating their contract. What many employees in California do not realize, however, is that you have a right to be protected against constructive discharge, our best wrongful termination attorneys in Los Angeles say.
More often than not, employees in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California are entitled to receive severance pay after termination. Whether or not your termination was wrongful is up to the courts to decide, but severance pay must be paid to eligible employees.
Are you entitled to severance pay? While California law does NOT require employers to provide outgoing employees with severance packages, which can include severance pay, health insurance coverage, and other benefits, you may be entitled to claim severance benefits if you were fired due to a closing department or facility, or the company went bankrupt and had to fire a large number of employees.
Also, you have a right to receive severance pay if your employment contract promised so, or if there is a history within the company that indicates that other outgoing employees received severance packages.
Fight back against wrongful termination today. Consult our attorneys at The Kaufman Law Firm to know more about your employee rights and how to file a lawsuit against wrongful termination. Call our Los Angeles offices at 310-981-3404 or send us an email for a case evaluation.