Wrongful Termination

Protect your rights after a wrongful termination

While California is an at-will employment state, meaning private employers can fire an employee at any time without giving an explanation, it is illegal to terminate employees for certain specific reasons.

Employers are forbidden from discriminating against any employee on the basis of Age, Race, National Origin, Sexual orientation, Disability, Marital status, Religion, Gender identity, for making whistleblower complaints, for complaining of wage theft and not being paid minimum wage, overtime, bonuses, or meal and rest breaks. You are also protected from being fired for refusing to participate in any illegal activity.

Employers are prohibited from:

• Firing or transferring employers to keep them from collecting their sales commissions
• Misleading employees about their chances for promotions and wage increases
• Inventing reason to terminate an employee in order to replace them for another who will work for less
• Failing to mention or inadequately mentioning negative aspects of a job, such as travel
• Repeatedly transferring an employee to remote, dangerous, or otherwise undesirable locations
• Forcing an employee to quit by creating intolerable working conditions with discriminatory or retaliatory motives 

Further, public employees, such as those working for federal, state, or local government, or public universities, usually have even more rights and protections, including “for cause” termination requirements.