can you be fired because your employer doesn't like that you sued a co-worker?

[Professor627]

You may be wrong, It is against the law to retaliate against a worker. If she can show that this is retaliation for suing, she may have a legitimate complaint.

Also, about equipment: If a company does not have a written policy on using the e-mail, then she has not violated a policy.

 

[cyjeff]

You may be wrong, It is against the law to retaliate against a worker. If she can show that this is retaliation for suing, she may have a legitimate complaint.

Also, about equipment: If a company does not have a written policy on using the e-mail, then she has not violated a policy.

You are incorrect.

Most retaliation is perfectly legal. I can retaliate against someone for doing a bad job. I can retaliate against an employee for not providing a proper professional demeanor or for merely pissing me off.

I can even retaliate against an employee for involving MY business in a legal matter that I care nothing about. Prudent legal counsel would tell the employer to fire both people before their little brouhaha bubbled over onto the company.

And it would be perfectly legal.

The employee is not suing the COMPANY, but someone else. Being in the middle of an unconnected lawsuit does not provide an employee with job protection.

 

[ecmst12]

No, YOU are wrong, it is NOT against the law to "retaliate" against an employee for suing a coworker as suing a coworker is not a protected activity. The only things that you are protected against retaliation for are reporting illegal harassment or discrimination (based on a protected characteristic), reporting illegal activities to a regulatory body, reporting safety violations to OSHA, that kind of thing. "Retaliation" for most activities is not illegal.

 

[justalayman]

You may be wrong, It is against the law to retaliate against a worker. If she can show that this is retaliation for suing, she may have a legitimate complaint.

Also, about equipment: If a company does not have a written policy on using the e-mail, then she has not violated a policy.

look at it this way prof;

they do not like litigious people working for them so they dumped her.

Perfectly legal.

and there is no retaliation. She has done nothing to or against the company so what would the retaliation be against?

 

[eerelations]

You may be wrong, It is against the law to retaliate against a worker. If she can show that this is retaliation for suing, she may have a legitimate complaint.

Also, about equipment: If a company does not have a written policy on using the e-mail, then she has not violated a policy.

Incorrect on both counts. Retaliation is only illegal in very specific and narrow circumstances. The OP's situation does not meet the criteria (not even close!) for those circumstances.

While you're correct in saying that employees cannot violate policies that don't exist, employers may still legally fire employees for misusing company equipment, even in the absence of a stated policy against doing so.

However, as noted previously, this thread isn't about whether or not the OP misused his/her employer's equipment. This thread is about whether it's legal for an employer to fire an employee for suing a coworker. And the answer is, again, yes this is legal. Period.