WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN AT-WILL EMPLOYEE IN CALIFORNIA: WHEN TO CALL AN EMPLOYMENT ATTORNEY
Like many other states, California is an at-will state for most jobs, unless specified otherwise in a specific employment contract. At-will has also been called a “right to fire” and a “right to hire” state. This means that for most employees, you can be fired for many reasons, including your employer just not liking you. Many times, an employee will want to bring a wrongful termination suit against their employer, only to find out that your employer may have been morally wrong in firing you, but they have done nothing legally wrong.
To be eligible for wrongful termination in an at-will state, you must be in a protected class. These classes include: gender, race, national origin, medical disability, and age, to name a few. Beyond just being in one of these classes, you must show that your employer fired you based on this classification. For example, it is not enough that you be black when you are fired, you must show that your employer fired you because you are black. This is much harder to prove, but in circumstances surrounding the firing may have been the actual reason.
Further, you may be able to recover for wrongful termination if you were terminated in violation of public policy. This could mean you were a whistleblower, or that you were out of work due to jury duty, or your employer was engaged in safety violations that prevented you from going in to work (and you were thereby fired).
However, the majority of cases in an at-will employment state are simple – you can be fired for good cause, bad cause, or just because your employer didn’t want to keep you on any longer. Not all cases are ripe for seeking an attorney. If you suspect that you were fired due to your protected class, you have been the victim of past discrimination or harassment, or you were terminated after you blew the whistle on your employer, you should call the law offices of Greenberg & Rudman LLP at 1-800-252-9776 for a free consultation in California regarding your legal rights and how one of our experienced employment lawyers may be able to help you.
