Wrongful Termination of Employment. Parts 1

   
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In the absence of an employment contract, an American employee is an employee at will. The employee at will doctrine allows employers and employees the freedom to terminate the employment relationship for good cause or for no cause at all. However, it does not allow the employer to fire an employee for “bad” or “wrongful” cause. 

What is “Wrongful"?

Wrongful termination is defined by both state and federal law. Generally, an employee may have been wrongfully terminated if the employee was fired for:

• Discriminatory Reasons: this includes any class protected by law including race, sex, age, national origin and disability. Some states also make it illegal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation.
• Retaliatory Reasons: an employer may not fire an employee for exercising his or her civil rights. For example, if the employee alleges that he or she has been discriminated against and files a discrimination claim with the employer or a state or federal agency, the employee cannot be fired for filing the claim. Similarly, an employee cannot be fired for participating in the investigation of another employee’s civil rights claim.
• Refusing to Break the Law: it is against the law for an employer to require an employee to break the law as part of his or her job and an employer cannot terminate an employee’s job for refusal to break the law; and
• Being a Whistleblower, in certain situations: the law protects whistleblowers from being fired if they report certain activities of their employers through the proper channels. For example, if an employee raises concerns that an employer is breaking environmental laws then the employee maybe protected from losing his or her job if the employee brought the concerns to a supervisor or to an appropriate government agency. However, the employee would not be protected from termination if the employee told a colleague or the media.

Source : http://resources.lawinfo.com