What constitute grounds for grounds for a wrongful termination claim?
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What constitute grounds for grounds for a wrongful termination claim?
I was AP for a major retailer. My partner has had at least 4 bad apps that can be proven, preceding our incident. In not one of those bad apps did he follow company procedure. He has not been coached or even talked too. In my case, I followed every procedure and was still terminated. But the bad app was his fault and I got terminated. He recently had a bad stop about 2 week ago but was promoted to to a supervisory position last week.
Asked on September 6, 2011 under Employment Labor Law, Nevada
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 12 years ago | Contributor
The biggest issue--and possibly the only one which matters--is did you have an employment agreement or contract, and, if so, did it cover either grounds for termination or the procedure/process for termination? If you did, it's terms are enforceable, and if you were terminated in violation of it, you may have a claim.
If you did not have a contract, you are an employee at will. An employee at will may be terminated at any time, for any reason--even unfair ones, as long as:
1) the employer is not discriminating on the basis of race, religion, sex, age over 40, disability, etc.
2) the employer is not retaliating for having used a protected benefit (like FMLA leave) or brought a protected claim (like for overtime, worker's compensation, or discrimination
But apart from 1) or 2) above, an employee at will can be fired at will; therefore, if you were an employee at will (no contract) and there was no discrimination or retaliation, you probably do not have a wrongful termination claim, unfortunately, even if everyone would agree your termination is otherwise unfair. Employers are not required to be fair.
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