Were you forced to quit your job because of harassment or discrimination? While forced resignation isn’t the same as getting fired if you were forced to quit a job because of something illegal that your employer did, you can file a wrongful termination claim against that employer. Employers sometimes put employees in positions where they have no choice but to quit, like cutting their hours down to almost nothing. But that’s discrimination, and you can file a wrongful termination suit against an employer for that.
How Is Forced Resignation Different From Getting Fired?
Forced resignation is when an employer engages in a campaign to get an employee to quit rather than fire them. Typically, the employer has been engaging in harassment or discrimination against that employee and knows that they can’t fire the employee so they try to force them to quit instead. Some of the ways employers may force employees to quit include:
- Changing their schedules to days and times when they cannot work, such as scheduling a parent to work during the time they must pick up their child at school.
- Cutting their hours down to just a few hours per week so the employee must find other work to make money to live on.
- Bullying or harassing the employee or encouraging other employees to bully or harass the employee until they quit.
In a forced resignation situation the employee may be the one ending the relationship but the employer has put them in a situation where they have no choice so the employer is still responsible for the ending of the working relationship. That makes it a wrongful termination, which is illegal.
What Is Wrongful Termination?
Wrongful termination is when an employee is fired for something that they are not allowed to be fired for. There are laws that protect workers from being fired because of things like:
- Race
- Sex
- Gender
- Identity
- Religion
- Immigration Status
- Age
- Motherhood
And if an employer fires an employee because of one of those protected factors that’s an illegal termination. Forced resignation is illegal termination because the employer is the one orchestrating an unsafe or toxic work environment that no employee could reasonably be expected to work in.
What Should I Do If I’m Forced To Resign?
If you are forced to resign gather up as much evidence as you can that will show a pattern of harassment or discrimination. It’s very important that you have evidence that shows your employer had a pattern of harassing you, bullying you, or discriminating against you. For example, if your employer consistently scheduled you to work during a time when you needed to be picking up your kids you would need emails or other correspondence showing you made it clear that you couldn’t work during that time but your employer refused to schedule you any other time.
Take the evidence that you have and speak with an employment attorney. They can guide you through the process of filing a New York wrongful termination claim with the EEOC and the NY Department of Labor.
Speak With an A Wrongful Termination Lawyer
To get personalized advice that will help you build a claim against your employer fill out a Free Case Evaluation Form today. An independent employment lawyer who takes cases in NY who subscribes to the website may answer your questions and help you prepare your claim.
