San Diego Retaliatory Termination Lawyers
Some employers use intimidation to maintain control of their employees’ actions. If an employee was bold enough to report the employer for illegal employment practices, they may be made an example of and terminated in retaliation. “Dont Get Mad, Get Even” is the motto of these employers.
What is Retaliation?
As an employee, you have every right—and some might say a duty—to report illegal employment practices, discrimination, or other violations of the law by your employer; and your employer has no right to retaliate against you for doing so. But when you’ve acted against what your employer perceives to be in the company’s best interest, you may suddenly find yourself “persona non grata” around the office, and you may soon find yourself without a job. If that happens, however, you have legal recourse, because you can’t be terminated for whistle-blowing or for demanding what is due you when wage and hour laws or anti-discrimination laws have been violated. The problem is proving a cause and effect relationship between your raising the issue publicly and your termination. This is where you need a truly top-notch employment lawyer on your side.
Rather than terminating you outright, which might bring legal repercussions, your employer may have decided to be more subtle, and little by little begin to make it so unpleasant to continue working there, that you are forced to resign. You might find yourself the object of harassment. Your reviews may have always been stellar before the event, but they’ve suddenly become filled with unwarranted criticism. Your schedule may have been changed to a less favorable one, or you may have been passed up for an expected promotion. You might even have been demoted.
You’ve been made to feel unwelcome and uncomfortable at work until your stress level has risen beyond your ability to tolerate it, and finally you see no solution but to quit. You may think that because you’ve decided to resign, you don’t have a legal case for retaliatory termination. With the right lawyer, however, you may be able to prove what is called constructive termination and show that you were essentially bullied into resigning in retaliation for your prior unwanted exposure of company wrongdoing. If it can be shown that the employer’s behavior was exceptionally egregious, there is even the potential to win punitive damages, designed to punish the company and deter the behavior in the future.
Whether the retaliatory termination is direct or constructive, having the right lawyer can make all the difference when it comes to winning compensation for the damages that you’ve suffered from the loss of your job. The employment lawyers at the Bodell Law Group in San Diego know from long experience working with victims of unfair practices in the workplace, how much havoc they can wreak on your life and how difficult it can be to bounce back after you’ve lost your job to illegal retaliation.
We are committed to the cause of justice in the workplace and fair and equal treatment for everyone who needs to work for a living. Call today for an appointment and learn how we can help.
We understand that when you’ve been wrongfully terminated from your job, you may be on a tight budget as you try to keep current on your expenses without a regular paycheck. At Bodell Law Group, when we accept a case, it is on a contingency agreement, meaning unless we win a recovery for you, you will owe us nothing.