Saturday, February 5, 2011

"You're Fired!!" Can You Sue Your Employer?

Probably not, but maybe. Here's Southern Justice's take: Alabama follows what is labeled the doctrine of at-will employment. At-will employment simply means that your employer can fire you for a good reason, any reason, or no reason at all. Your employer, by the same token, will not be able to sue you for taking a job with their strongest competitor or retiring to the beach. Essentially, you can leave your job any time without worrying about being sued, and your employer can leave you without worrying about being sued. There are, however, actions that an employee and employer can take that can alter the at-will status.

First, if you and your employer have signed an employment contract, then you both are bound by the terms of the contract. For an example, think of college football head coaches. Except for former University of Alabama head football coach Mike Price, they always sign employment contracts and are never employed at-will. In Alabama, the employment contract must also be in writing.

Another way to alter the at-will status is to be part of a union. You could think of unions as simply an employment contract between a lot of workers and their employer. The contract itself is called a collective bargaining agreement. In the union context, the collective bargaining agreement governs the employment status of the workers, and union workers typically cannot be fired for just any reason at all. The idea is that there is bargaining power in numbers, and that idea certainly holds true for union workers.

Outside of some sort of contractual agreement, most Employee protections come from laws passed by the federal government, and the federal government has passed several of them. Here are a few: You cannot be fired because you become pregnant or are pregnant. You cannot be fired, demoted, or not promoted because of your sex, race, religion, or national origin (discrimination). You cannot be harassed because of your sex (sexual harassment). If you work more than 40 hours a week, you must be paid overtime at a rate of 1.5 times your regular rate. You must be paid for the hours you work, and you must be paid a minimum wage for those hours worked. Your employer cannot label you "salary" just to avoid paying you overtime. You cannot be fired, demoted, or not promoted if you are "regarded as" having a disability. Your employer cannot retaliate against you for attempting to enforce any of these rights. These are the employee protections that employers most frequently violate, but there remain more federally protected worker rights.

Bottomline: Unless you have signed an employment contract, are a member of a union, or have been fired, demoted, or not promoted because of one of the reasons listed above, then you will not be able to sue your employer. However, if you believe that your employer has taken an adverse employment action against you or wrongfully terminated your employment, call a Watson & Davis employment lawyer today for a free consultation to discuss your rights.

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