Losing a job isn't a pleasant experience, but being wrongfully terminated is even more painful. If you believe your employer illegally fired you, you've got some choices to make. You can do nothing, file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), hire an attorney or file a claim and hire that attorney.
Take, for instance, the case of a company that fired a man after he refused to participate in an employee Christian bible study group. He claimed that his boss said participation was mandatory. When he didn't join, the boss fired him. He filed a discrimination charge against the company with the EEOC and hired an attorney.
In another recent case, employees at a large tech company filed a class-action lawsuit claiming the company discriminated against them because of their age when it fired them.
If you believe you were wrongfully terminated or not hired for the wrong reasons, you're not powerless. Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 lays out protected classes in employment and defines illegal practices. The EEOC exists to help people like you, and many attorneys focus their practices on seeking justice for those fired or not hired for illegal reasons. Rounding out this three-part series on Title VII, here's what you need to know regarding the rights of a wrongfully terminated employee.
Employers cannot consider your protected class in hiring.
When interviewing for a job, you expect to be asked questions. Employers need to learn about you, your skills and experience. But they don't need to know anything about topics that potentially place you in a protected class. Some of these questions may be common get-to-know-you queries, but they're not appropriate — or legal — in a job interview. Those topics include:
• Race, color or national origin.
• Religion.
• Gender, sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Pregnancy status.
• Disability.
• Age or genetic information.
• Citizenship.
• Marital status or children.
If anyone asks you about any of the above topics in a job interview, you don't have to answer.
Sometimes the illegal questions aren’t direct. For example, a job candidate listed fluency in Spanish on her resume. The interviewer then asked where she learned the language, a seemingly innocent question that’s actually an attempt to determine her national origin.
You have the right to receive all the benefits anyone should receive after being terminated.
When you're fired — no matter the reason — you have the right to receive some benefits. These include:
• Final paycheck: You have the right to be paid for the time you worked.
• Healthcare coverage: Under COBRA (the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986) you and your family have the right to continued health insurance coverage after being fired, for a period.
• Severance pay: If you have a severance agreement as part of your employment contract, you may be eligible for that pay.
• Unemployment: You have the right to file for unemployment. If approved, you can receive benefits for 26 weeks, and possibly an additional 20 weeks. Conditions apply.
When should you pursue legal action?
If your employer, or potential employer, used your protected class when making decisions about hiring, disciplinary actions or firing, you might have grounds for a lawsuit. Some examples of discriminatory behavior that may be a reason to file a lawsuit include:
• Two employees commit a similar offense. One employee doesn't face any consequences. The other employee, a member of a protected class, is demoted.
• An employer makes the work environment intolerable for a person of a protected class, essentially forcing the person to resign.
• An employee is harassed because of her protected class or because she complained about discrimination.
These are only some examples of instances where an employer discriminated against an employee.
What should you do next?
If you believe an employer didn't hire you, fired you or took disciplinary action against you because of your protected class, you have choices. But first, remember that anti-discrimination laws give you a limited window to file. Generally, you must file within 180 days from when the discrimination happened.
If you want to take action, you need to start with the EEOC. Except for the Equal Pay Act, you must file a charge with the EEOC before you can file a lawsuit against an employer for unlawful discrimination. The EEOC allows you to file a charge online, in person, by phone or by mail. If the employer is part of the federal government, there is a different filing process.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act designates protected classes in employment. As an employee or job applicant, you need to know that employers can't consider those classes in hiring, that you have the right to benefits when you've been fired, whether you have grounds for legal action after being terminated and what to do if you think an employer discriminated against you.
