Were You Unlawfully Terminated?
The Connecticut wrongful termination lawyers at Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C. offer personalized attention when you need it most. We have nearly 50 years of experience helping clients pursue and file unlawful termination claims. If you feel you were wrongfully terminated from your job, we want to help.
It is important to know what wrongful termination is and how you can pursue your rights. If you think you were fired for unlawful reasons, the most important thing to do is seek professional counsel. The Connecticut employment lawyers at Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C. can help.
Connecticut is an At-Will Employment State
If you believe you were unfairly terminated, a question that is likely on your mind is, “Was my termination legal?” Many people who have been let go feel they were wrongfully terminated. But a wrongful termination may or not be an unlawful one. So, what are the factors to consider in deciding whether your employer has crossed the proverbial line from a termination that is merely unfair or wrong to one that is an unlawful wrongful termination?
Connecticut is an at-will employment state. This means the employer may terminate an employee for any reason or no reason at all, so long as it is not an illegal reason. Connecticut recognizes some key circumstances, however, in which a wrongful termination is illegal. Those circumstances include:
Discrimination-Based Termination
You cannot be fired from your job because of discrimination based on your protected characteristics, including your:
- Race
- Color
- Religion
- Age
- Sex
- Pregnancy
- Disability
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity or expression
- Marital status
- National origin
- Ancestry
Of course, being a member of a protected class is not enough in and of itself to state a claim for wrongful termination. The employee must prove that the employer’s decision to terminate the employee was connected to that employee’s protected characteristic.
Proving discrimination can be challenging. These days employers are rarely so unsophisticated that they will affirmatively admit the unlawful reason that they are terminating someone. (If they did, that would be “direct evidence” of discrimination.) Instead, discrimination typically is proven through circumstantial evidence. Consider, for example, a female employee who is fired for something a male employee routinely does without any consequences. This can be circumstantial evidence of discrimination based on sex, and a termination motivated by discrimination based on sex would be an unlawful wrongful termination.
Retaliation
You cannot be fired from your job because of retaliation. Retaliation is being terminated or punished for speaking out against, filing a complaint about, or refusing to participate in any form of unlawful discrimination or other unlawful acts.
For example, if you see a colleague being harassed or treated differently because of his race and intervene to protect him, you cannot be fired for complaining about that colleague’s discriminatory treatment
Like discrimination claims, retaliation claims can be proven via direct evidence (think: “I am terminating you because you complained about discrimination”) or circumstantial evidence. There are a multitude of ways that retaliation can be proven circumstantially. By way of example, consider an employee who recently received a positive performance review (or merit-based bonus) yet was terminated for allegedly poor job performance shortly after he complained about discrimination in the workplace. The close timing between the complaint and the termination – especially when juxtaposed with the employer’s positive feedback about the employee before he complained – could be powerful circumstantial evidence of retaliation.
First Amendment Retaliation
Unlike many other states, Connecticut has a whistleblower law which under certain conditions prohibits employers from wrongfully terminating employees because those employees have exercised their First Amendment rights by speaking out about a matter of public concern, such as politics or public safety.
Wrongful Discharge in Violation of Public Policy
Connecticut law also protects employees from wrongful termination if they have reported illegal activities or unsafe workplace practices or refused to engage in unlawful or unethical conduct. You cannot be fired for a reason that violates federal or state public policy. It is illegal to force an employee to choose between breaking the law and losing their job. So, if your employer told you to falsify financial statements, and you were fired because you refused to commit fraud, that might be a wrongful termination in violation of public policy.
Breach of Contract
You cannot be fired for a reason that would breach a written or verbal contract. An employment contract may state the reasons an employee can be terminated.
If you are terminated for a reason other than those included in your employment contract, it might be a wrongful termination. Generally, in Connecticut, an employment contract for a fixed period of time (such as six months or one year) can only be terminated for “cause,” whether the contract expressly says so or not.
Sometimes, an employee handbook specifies procedures for discipline and termination. If your employer deviated from that procedure when terminating you, that might be a wrongful termination.
Promissory Estoppel
Sometimes an employer’s own handbook can protect a terminated employee who complained about conditions or treatment in the workplace. For example, employees might rely on their employer’s “open door / no retaliation” policy, which encourages employees to voice their concerns and assures them that the company will not retaliate against them if they do so in good faith. Employees can prevail on a claim for promissory estoppel if they prove: (1) the company made a clear, definite promise in the handbook that it would not retaliate against employees for using its internal complaint procedure; (2) the company reasonably should have expected the employee to rely on the promise; (3) the employee did reasonably rely on it; (4) the employee was terminated as a result; and (5) enforcement of the promise is necessary to prevent injustice.
Even in situations where the handbook contains a disclaimer stating that the employee should not view the provisions in the handbook as promises and reminding employees that they are employed at will, a court could find that in certain situations the provisions in the handbook are so clear and widely proclaimed that employees were nonetheless entitled to rely upon them.
How Our Connecticut Wrongful Termination Lawyers Can Help
Determining whether you were wrongfully terminated in violation of state and/or federal law depends on the facts specific to your termination. Every case is different, and timing is critically important, so do not wait to seek professional counsel.
At Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti, P.C., we have nearly 50 years of experience litigating wrongful termination cases. Do not wait. Contact us now for an evaluation of your wrongful termination claim.
