In San Diego, employers may choose to terminate employees for many reasons or for no reason at all. In California, many employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will,” which means employers may choose to fire employees with or without a good reason for doing so.
However, in order to protect employees from being fired for unfair reasons, there are certain rules employers must follow when terminating employees. When employers deviate from these rules, employees may be able to get their jobs back or seek other damages for wrongful termination by taking legal action and filing a lawsuit.
For instance, employers cannot fire employees for being involved in political activities or for voting. Yet, one woman claims that she was fired for voting for President Barack Obama in November 2012. The woman is now pursuing a wrongful termination lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit that was filed on Feb. 14, the woman’s employer had told employees that if President Barack Obama was re-elected in November, any employees who supported Obama would be terminated. After Obama was re-elected, the woman’s employer fired her. The woman’s employer had learned that she had voted for Obama, and on Nov. 9, the employee was told that she was being terminated.
The former employee believes that she was fired under illegal conditions. The lawsuit claims that her employer often bashed those who supported Obama, and when her employer learned that she had supported Obama, her employer terminated her. However, the woman’s former employer claims that she was terminated due to economic challenges the company had been facing and that the former employee’s political affiliations had nothing to do with the employee losing her job.
The former employee is seeking at least $25,000 in damages.
Source: San Diego Union-Tribune, “Ohio woman claims she was fired for Obama vote,” Feb. 20, 2013
- Our Southern California firm handles a variety of complex employment law and job rights issues, including cases that involve wrongful termination and retaliation in the workplace. To learn more about employees’ rights, please visit our San Diego employment law attorneys page.