Have you been working as a fast food worker? Did your employer recently fire you and do you think there was no reason on legal grounds for doing so? If this is what has happened to you, you may have been terminated wrongfully.
Fortunately, state and federal laws state that an employer cannot terminate you unless it has a legal reason for doing so even if you are an employee at-will.
According to employment-at-will law, an employer is not given the right to terminate an employee for a reason that violates state, federal or local anti-discrimination laws. If you are certain you have the proof that your employer wrongfully terminated you, you may be entitled to file an employment law claim today.
Common Types of Wrongful Termination
If you were working as a fast food worker and you were terminated because you complained about any of the following things the action of your employer may be illegal:
- no face or hand protection from spilled hot oil;
- the area around where you serve fast food isn’t cleaned regularly;
- oil from high speed frying isn’t removed from the floor regularly creating a slip and fall hazard.
Apart from filing complaints to your employer which results in termination there are other reasons you can’t be terminated by law as given below.
- Age discrimination by law is not permitted but it still takes place particularly after an employee has reached the age of 40 years. When a worker attains this age s/he could be terminated and somebody of a younger age may replace them but this is not legal.
- Disability discrimination is not allowed unless the employer has good reason and employers are, by law, told they must make reasonable accommodations for all of their disabled workers and are not permitted to terminate any of them due to their disability as long as they are able to do the work required of them.
- Discrimination as a result of sexual orientation as federal laws do not allow employers to discriminate against their employees such as firing them because of their sexual orientation.
- Gender discrimination by law isn’t permitted in the workplace but some employers frequently offer promotion to men rather than women or will terminate a woman far more quickly than a male employee. This is illegal.
- Racism and race discrimination are not permitted in any workplace according to the law. Despite this law many employers are still racially biased in relation to the skin color or ethnicity of their employees but this is illegal particularly if someone is fired and that person believes it is related to ethnicity.
- Retaliation by your employer because you complained about work conditions is not a legal reason for terminating you. Also being a whistleblower doesn’t give an employer the legal right to terminate an employee.
What to Do If You’ve Been Wrongfully Terminated as a Fast Food Worker
If you are a fast food worker and you can prove you were wrongfully terminated, you will need to gather together as much proof as possible to support your case.
The sorts of proof you will need includes:
- your employer’s termination notice;
- your employee contract;
- the workplace policies;
- the employee handbook;
- any job performance evaluations by your employer and the dates.
If you have been terminated but you have had good performance evaluations then you have been wrongfully terminated.
However, you will need to be able to prove that you have been terminated wrongfully so that means you will need enough evidence to prove your employer has violated the law.
You should be monitoring your employer’s behavior and find out from your work colleagues if they can recall any times when a fast food worker had been terminated for no genuine reason, even though the employee had a good work record.
To help to boost your claim of wrongful termination you should contact any reliable witnesses and ask them politely if they are prepared to write statements that provide proof that you have been wrongfully terminated.
Get a Free Evaluation Today
If you are employed as a fast food worker and you believe you were wrongfully terminated from your job, you may have your employment law claim reviewed free of any charge.
When an employment law attorney works on your behalf, s/he will help you to put together all the evidence and paperwork you will require to win a successful wrongful termination claim under employment law.
There are some employment law attorneys who are prepared to work on a contingency fee basis while others may charge an hourly rate for their services. Get a free employment law case evaluation today and you will not look back.
