Workers in Florida rarely have long-term job security. As an at-will employment state, Florida allows both employers and workers to end a work arrangement with little explanation or advance notice.
Sometimes, professionals assume that they cannot fight back against an unfair termination because of at-will employment laws. However, wrongful terminations can still occur in at-will employment states. So long as workers can show that a company discriminated against them, unfairly retaliated against them or violated key provisions of an initial employment contract, they may have grounds to take legal action after a sudden job loss.
What are some of the warning signs that a termination may have been wrongful?
1. Suspect timing
Frequently, the main reason that workers suspect that they have experienced a wrongful termination is the timing of the termination. If their employer fires them the day after they complain about sexual harassment, then the termination may have been retaliatory.
Employees intending to engage in protected workplace activities ranging from requesting unpaid leave to unionizing with their teammates may need to learn about their rights and document their actions carefully so that they can fight back if they experience a retaliatory firing.
2. Terminations that affect one group more than others
During times of financial uncertainty for a business, downsizing staff is a common practice. Companies lay off or terminate numerous workers at once to reduce operating expenses and help keep the company solvent during difficult times.
Technically, employers can eliminate many of their workers at once without necessarily violating their rights. However, businesses need to ensure that they select the employees to include in layoffs or terminations fairly.
They should not consider protected characteristics such as race, age, sex or religion when deciding who to lay off or terminate. When it is clear that one group of workers was far more likely than others to lose their jobs during a widespread staffing reduction at a company, the terminations may have been discriminatory and therefore wrongful.
3. Employers blaming protected characteristics
It is possible for a one-on-one firing to be discriminatory. Perhaps a supervisor or human resources manager references that the only female worker on a production line couldn’t quite fit in with her male coworkers.
They might comment about how working around an employee’s religious observances was a hassle or that they don’t fit into the company culture because of their national origin or race. In scenarios where employers make it clear that a worker’s protected characteristics influenced the decision to let them go, that can be a major warning sign of a wrongful termination.
Workers fired for unjust reasons can sometimes hold their employers accountable. Reviewing employment records can help workers determine if they have grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit after a sudden and unfair job loss.
