When Does Firing an Employee Become Illegal

When talking about employment and labor laws, the issue of termination is usually one of the most common. Employment in the United States, particularly in most states, has the -at-will employment- approach, which means that employers have the right to terminate or -fire- an employee at any time and for any valid reason. However, some employers dismiss their workers with no valid reason at all, and sometimes these reasons are justified in an illegal sense.

Federal employment laws and state statutes prevent employers to terminate an employee on the basis of discrimination or retaliation. The rules against illegal termination mostly apply on employment with an employer-employee contract and on an -at-will employment- approach. The provisions in these laws are mostly in favor of employees, for they can easily hire an employment and labor law attorney if the basis of their dismissal is done illegally by an employer.


So when does firing an employee become illegal? Here are some of the justifications that employers use to fire their employees that, to the eyes of the law, are illegally prohibited.

Discrimination - Federal laws, such as the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, forbids employers to exercise discriminatory acts in the employer-employee relationship, including termination. The protective characteristics of race, color, sex, national origin and religious beliefs being used as an excuse for firing an employee is illegal. State employment laws provide additional rule-outs on employment discrimination where a wider group of workers are covered.

Retaliation - An employer firing an employee as a form of retaliation is against the federal and state employment laws. For example, an employer dismisses an employee for exercising his right to file a claim against his employer because of a grievance, e.g. sexual harassment. The retaliation claim can be filed by the terminated employee even if the sexual harassment claim did not push through.

Refusal of an employee to undergo lie detection - An employee can refuse an employer's offer to undergo a lie detector test. The employer, though, must not dismiss his employee for doing so.

Public policy violations - An employer can violate a public policy statute. Public policy is a set of regulations that are initiated by the people and would usually lean on morality and ethics. For example, an employer must not terminate an employee for not faking an insurance claim, or for exercising the right to vote during the day of election.

George Fuller used to be a campus journalist in a University and holds a degree in AB Mass Communication. He jumped-start his profession in web content writing and has written somekeyword and somekeyword articles to date.

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