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Other Tort Claims Introduction Many people are employed "at will", meaning that they don't have a formal employment contract with their employer and state law thus permits thei r employment to be ended at any time, or that they do have a written con tract under which contains an "at will" clause to that same effect. Howe ver, even "at will" employees are entitled to certain legal protections against wrongful termination, and cannot be fired for reasons that viola te the law or public policy. Pretextual Termination - Civil Rights Laws The Civil Rights Act in 1964 extended anti-discrimination protections to employees, whose employment could no longer be terminated for reasons su ch as their race, gender, skin color, religion, or national origin. Addi tional legal protections now exist to deter certain forms of age discrim ination. Following the creation of these anti-discrimination laws, it be came possible for employees to argue that their terminations were "prete xtual" - that is, although their employers were citing lawful reasons to terminate their employment, their employers were actually motivated by unlawful discriminatory motives. Within this context, it should be noted that employers of at-will employe es may end their employment for reasons that are arbitrary, provided the y don't run afoul of the law. For example, while civil rights law protec ts employees from being fired because of their skin color, there's no si milar protection against being fired because an employer doesn't like th e color of your car. At the same time, any employer who might face a dis crimination claim would be ill-served by trying to defend a wrongful ter mination lawsuit by presenting such a ridiculous basis for the decision to fire an employee. Public Policy Exceptions In addition to the express protections against wrongful discharge which a re granted by law, most states recognized certain "public policy" protec tions against discharge. While the nature and availability of these reas ons will vary, often significantly, between jurisdictions, the underlyin g rationale remains the same: The common law, or othe laws set forth by a state legislature, creates an express or implied public policy, which will be undermined if employers are permitted to fire their employees in violation of that public policy.
workers' compensation protections to provide for the care and support of workers who are injured on the j ob. If employers were allowed to fire workers for filing workers' compen sation claims, their actions would undermine the public policy behind th ose laws. Similarly, many states will permit a lawsuit by an employee wh o was fired for refusing to perform an illegal act. Whistle-Blower Protections In what might be regarded as a statutory extension of public policy, most workers are covered by "whistle blower" statutes which may support an a ction against the employer if the employee is fired for informing a stat e or regulatory agency about the employer's misconduct. Typically, the e mployee must make the report to the agency which is responsible for resp onding to the employer's misconduct - such as, for an employer which is dumping used oil down a storm drain, a state or federal environmental pr otection agency. Employees are not ordinarily protected for other types of disclosure, such as telling friends about the employer's misconduct, or for reporting the misconduct to the news media. It is important to note that the statute of limitations applying to whist le blower cases is usually very short - some statutes require that actio n be taken literally within weeks of the employer's retaliatory act. Thu s it is usually important for whistleblowers who suffer retaliation to c onsult with lawyers as soon as they can after they learn of the retaliat ion. Contractual Protections Even employees who do not have written contracts of employment may be abl e to bring actions based upon the content of employee handbooks or manua ls. Where a company document of that nature outlines a disciplinary proc ess that must precede termination, the failure to follow that process ma y support a wrongful termination suit. If such a document states that em ployees will only be fired "for cause", an employer may have to document valid cause, such as the employee's failure to meet performance standar ds, if the termination is challenged. Many employers insert language into their handbooks and manuals in an eff ort to avoid this type of consequence, to the effect of, "Nothing in thi s manual consitutes a contract of employment between the employer and it s employees, and the employer may at its discretion elect not to follow any guidelines or procedures set forth herein in association with employ ee discipline or termination." Some states will permit an "at will" employee to bring a lawsuit on the b asis that the employer violated an implied covenant of "good faith and f air dealing" in association with the termination decision. In such state s, even with an at-will employee, the employer must extend some degree o f fairness in the decision to terminate employment.
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