Wrongful Termination
In California, the employment status of most employees is considered to be “at will,” which means that an employee may quit his or her job at any time for any reason. More importantly it also means that an employer may terminate an employee at any time for any reason or for no reason. There is a very important limitation on the employer’s right to terminate an employee’s job: an employer cannot terminate an employee for an ILLEGAL reason, one that violates public policy. Wrongful termination is a separate and distinct civil action from employment discrimination. We call such a civil action wrongful termination in violation of public policy. By this we mean that to have a wrongful termination case against one’s former employer a person must have been terminated from his or her job for a reason that violates a fundamental public policy expressed in a statute or in a constitutional provision.
It would obviously be illegal, and a violation of public policy, for an employer to terminate an employee because of her sex or because of any other illegal discriminatory reason. It is thus true that whenever a person is terminated from their job in California because of illegal discrimination, he or she has at least two separate civil actions they can bring in court to remedy the wrong, including a civil action for illegal employment discrimination and a separate civil action for wrongful termination in violation of public policy. But wrongful termination is much broader than employment discrimination: it includes termination from one’s job for any reason that violates a fundamental public policy, as earlier mentioned. So, for example, someone who was terminated from their job because he or she reported an OSHA violation by their employer or someone who was terminated because he or she reported for jury duty as required by law despite her employer’s objection to it because of pressing business reasons, may be able to bring a civil action for wrongful termination in violation of public policy against their former employer to remedy the wrong.
Highly compensated employees often have duties and responsibilities as key decision makers within a company that place them at particular risk for being terminated simply because they did what their job and the law required them to do in a particular situation. As an example, suppose the CEO becomes aware that his company illegally discharged pollution that placed the health of young children in the immediate vicinity at risk. Under those circumstances the CEO would probably have a legal duty under applicable environmental laws to report the discharge to the proper authorities. If the CEO’s employer terminated him to stop him from making the legally required disclosure, the CEO could probably bring an action for wrongful termination in violation of public policy against his former employer.
A plaintiff in a successful wrongful termination case can recover all damages resulting from the wrongful termination necessary to make the plaintiff completely whole, including the value of lost compensation and benefits, including potentially lost future earnings, as well as damages for such things as emotional distress, mental suffering from ostracism, and from loss of professional reputation. A prevailing plaintiff is entitled to recover prejudgment interest on the back pay award and she will be entitled to an award of court costs, including such things as deposition costs and filing fees. In an appropriate case involving egregious facts, a prevailing plaintiff can recover punitive damages against her former employer to serve as an example to other employers, managers and supervisors who might consider the same kind of wrongful conduct towards one of their own employees.
