Wrongful Termination in California, an at Will Employment State
All Employees in the state of California are presumed to be in an “at will employment status” unless they have a contract or collective bargaining agreement stating the period of time or length of employment.
At Will Employment
Basically this means that the employee and the employer both have the right to terminate the employment relationship at any time, without giving notice or warning. Neither party needs to give a reason, and if they do give a reason it doesn’t have to be a good reason, it can be as ridiculous as they want. Which brings me to ….
Wrongful Termination
There are really only 2 ways in which an at will employment situation can have a wrongful termination. The reason for the termination must be based on either discrimination or retaliation. This is often confusing because if we look up the definition of discrimination in Webster’s dictionary we would find:
b : the process by which two stimuli differing in some aspect are responded to differently
However, under California labor laws Discrimination is not as broad. Instead it is narrowed to only include situations pertaining to:
• Ethnicity or national origin
• Age – over 40
• Gender – equal pay act
• Sexual orientation or gender identity
• Religion – religious garb
• Disability – medical issue
If a termination cannot be proven to be linked to one of these categories, then the only other way to have a wrongful termination is to have been subjected to retaliation.
Retaliation
Again Webster’s definition of retaliation is more broad than what California labor law will recognize. The dictionary describes retaliation as:
“to return like for like; especially : to get revenge”
And California labor law narrows that to pertain to whistle blowing, meaning that retaliation can usually only occur if the employee has blown the whistle or reported the company for breaking some kind of law, code, regulation or industry standard. A simple disagreement or reporting your manager for being unfair or unprofessional unfortunately will not qualify as retaliation or whistle blowing, even if that manager acts out in revenge.
Labor law is complex; if you have any questions regarding your employment it is recommended that you contact a California labor law attorney who can help you understand your rights and in many cases will review your situation without charge.