Laws Governing Termination Guide
Victims of wrongful termination can often bring a case against their former employer. They may be able to receive damages or back pay. Understand what constitutes a cause for termination and what to do if you have been wrongfully terminated or accused of wrongfully terminating an employee.
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Can an Employer Fire/Not Hire Me for Failing a Physical?Many employers use a variety of pre-employment tests to help find qualified employees. However, some strategies may be illegal if the test is targeted to weed out individuals with disabilities.
Read more- Can I Be Fired for Lying on My Job Application?
Some job applicants decide to lie on their application, in their resume or in answers to interview questions in hopes that these lies or exaggerations will help them land the job. However, employing one of these tactics can cause an individual his or her job.
Read more - Can I Be Fired for Missing One Day of Work?
Most states and employers operate under an at-will system in which employers can terminate employees for any reason and employees can quit for any reason. However, employers cannot terminate employees for an illegal purpose, which may or may not occur if an employee misses one day of work. The reason for missing work and the terms of employment largely dictate whether an employee can be fired for missing one day of work.
Read more - Can I Be Fired While on Medical Leave?
Most states and employers are at-will in nature, meaning that an employer can fire an employee for any reason so long as it is a legal reason. While some leave laws protect employees from being fired or give employees the right to take time off work, these protections are not absolute. Whether you can be fired while on medical leave depends on the type of leave that you are taking and other factors.
Read more - Can My Employer Fire Me if I Fail a Company-ordered Polygraph?
In many cases, employers are not permitted to use polygraphs to test employees or job applicants. However, depending on the state and the type of employment, such tests may be permissible.
Read more - Can Someone Be Fired for Their Tweets?
Twitter allows users to post messages about their own thoughts or beliefs in 140 characters. This social media platform is often used to make inciteful comments with a limited number of words. It has been used by celebrities, politicians and everyday people. While this platform is often used to connect people, there can also be consequences to making public declarations on it, including the possibility of losing a job based on the comments left on the platform.
Read more - Can You Fire Someone for Their Social Media Complaints about Work?
Today, social media is used by most people on many different platforms. Using social media has an instantaneous effect in that the public can read about a situation immediately after it has arisen. This situation can lead to unwanted publicity and attention for a business when the social media post has to do with business practices.
Read more - Does Being Fired After Voluntary Rehab Violate Employment ADA Benefits?
When a person has entered rehabilitation for drug use or an ongoing substance abuse problem, he or she admits to the complication while working for a company. If there are drug tests that are used as a means of firing employees, it is possible that even voluntary admittance into a facility may not protect the job of a person with a disability.
Read more - Fired for Requesting FMLA Leave - Do I Have a Case?
The Family and Medical Leave Act permits someone to take a leave of absence from a company to take care of family or when there is an extended medical problem with the employee. Those that work at the company are protected from discrimination, being passed over for promotion, discipline actions, being laid off and termination when using FMLA.
Read more - Fired for Taking Bereavement -- Any Recourse?
Losing a friend or loved one is an awful experience, but one through which we will all suffer at one point or another. It is natural to need time following such a loss to collect one’s thoughts, prepare for the departed person’s final arrangements, and otherwise deal with the loss. Unfortunately, while we may all understand these needs on an intuitive level, there is not a legal recognition of this need in most jurisdictions. As a result, bereavement leave is often far from guaranteed.
Read more - Fired for Wage Garnishment
As an employee, your wages may be garnished if you owe a debt such as child support, student loans, back taxes, or you have a court judgment entered against you. A wage garnishment is when a court orders your employer to withhold a certain amount of your paycheck and send it directly to the person or institution to whom the debt is owed.
Read more - Free Speech on the Job - Can My Employer Fire Me?
While the ability to say what the employee wants is possible, freedom of speech os not without possible consequences depending on what is said in an office environment. The employee may have protected rights in public, but policies in the workplace dictate what he or she can say and do within the building.
Read more - Wrongful Termination – My Boss Fired Me, but Is It Considered "Wrongful Termination"?
Wrongful termination is a specific legal term that does not apply to every situation involving terminating an employee. In many instances, firing an employee is legal. For many situations, an employer does not need to give a reason for a firing. However, in some circumstances, wrongful termination arises and an employee may be entitled to certain damages.
Read more - Business Lawyer Explains Special Considerations when Terminating Employees
There are a number of laws and regulations in place that protect employees from unlawful and unwarranted termination. Because of these, it is vital to ensure that there is a legitimate reason the worker is being fired, there is evidence to back up the claim and the individual is not protected by certain stipulations.
Read more - Can I Fight At-Will Termination if I Don't Have a Contract?
It is when a person has no contract with a company that he or she will need to know if there is any possible way to fight the at-will termination policy at the company. When the company is able to terminate the employee for any reason at any time, knowing what laws protect the employee are crucial to fight the loss of work.
Read more - Employees Terminated Before Their Contract End Date Have Legal Options
Contract breaches such as the termination before the end date that occur in violation of the stipulations of the clauses in the legal document can lead to various legal remedies. Generally, the person has the right to sue the company, the right to pursue compensation or a legal right to retain the job after the invalid termination occurs.
Read more - Federal Laws Protecting Employees from Termination
There are some ways to ensure that a company is not able to terminate an employee without properly following certain steps, and most of these are due to wrongful termination laws for the country. It is through a wrong reason in firing a worker at a company that the employer or management may find serious complications or litigation.
Read more - How Do I Know If I Have Been Wrongfully Terminated?
If you are a victim of wrongful termination, you may have a case against your former employer. A successful lawsuit may mean that you have the right to recover back pay, statutory damages and expenses that you incurred to find another job.
Read more - Terminating a Contract Employee Before the Contract End Date
Generally, it is not possible to terminate an employment contract before the end date arrives, but there are certain situations where it is possible to do so depending on the clauses in the contract and what actions occur between employee and employer. These circumstances often demand some sort of illegal, immoral or out of scope action by the employee.
Read more - Earned Commissions - Payment after Termination May Differ by State
Many employees expect to be paid their final wages on their last day of work or at their regular pay period. However, commission payments are often made on a different schedule. There may also be conflict about whether a commission was fully earned or not. When commissions must be paid depends on a number of factors, including the work that the employee performed before termination, the commission agreement and state wage laws.
Read more - Fired after Giving Notice - Am I Entitled to Unemployment Benefits
Many employers require an employee to give two weeks’ notice in order for that employee to be eligible for rehire. By providing this notice, the employee is informing the employer of his or her plan to leave employment. Generally, employees are not entitled to unemployment benefits if they voluntarily quit their job. However, this idea becomes murky when the employer terminates the employee before the employee has the opportunity to leave by the designated date.
Read more - Habitually Absent, Tardy, or Sick? How to Deal with Employees Who Are Not Coming to Work
Do you have a trouble employee that can never seem to make it to work when they are supposed to? Either they are always late or they are not there at all? How should you go about disciplining this employee, particularly if you have let it slide in the past? Is there any risk to firing someone for claiming too much sick time (even if they are entitled to those days under the terms of their employment)?
Read more - Terminating Employees - Employer's Necessary Steps
Before an employee is fired, it is essential for the employer to consider various factors such as discrimination, harassment and if there is a cause that he or she could sue. For the employer, he or she must ensure the words used and actions taken are able to stand in court against the words and claim of the employee if it comes to litigation.
Read more - IF I Quit my Job, Do I Forfeit any Bonus I had been Promised in Writing?
Employment usually brings in certain perks when in seniority or with certain careers. However, if the employment ends, many of the bonuses may be lost if the person leaves the company.
Read more - Teacher Resignation Due to Retaliation by Principal - Can School District Be Sued?
When a workplace creates a hostile work environment, this could be considered harassment or discrimination when only one individual is targeted. Due to these circumstances, it is possible to bring the issue up with the Human Resources departments, but if this area does not assist the employee, it may be necessary to contact a lawyer when employment is no longer possible.
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