Bias and targeted termination

[jrcox1985]

Arizona,
I have been recently terminated from a telecommunications employer, and
I am suspicious of my corrective action process which led to my termination. The corrective action process, which goes in the tradition of verbal, written, then final, My verbal and written were documented and issued in contradiction to the metrics which measured them. I was under goal in said metric when the correctives were being issued, but I was making improvements the entire time, even progressing months showed a constant gain. Minimal coaching was issued, and I even refused to sign the written corrective on the grounds that its standing contradicted my improvement. When I pushed back on that note, they pulled what was professed to be randomly pulled calls, which all coincidentally were literally the worst calls that could be found, which I am professional enough that they are not many in number. The corrective that I had refused to sign as written by my supervisor had expired at the time of the final corrective being issued. When I pointed this out the manager and the Supervisor issuing the corrective stated that regardless of the issue at hand warranted an immediate final corrective. I did sign it, but my termination came from another issue altogether derived from another metric that resulted in no input on my part and seemed to be concluded prior to even being brought to my attention, an immediate 5-day suspension, and I was notified earlier today that I was fired. Do I have any reasonable right to file a claim? I feel as though this was a "by the book" excuse to get me out the door. All copies, to include originals before being rewritten due to me contesting them were on my work email account, which I, unfortunately, do not have access to.

 

[quincy]

You ask if you have a right to file a claim. For what? For "bias and targeted termination" or for unemployment compensation?

 

[adjusterjack]

Sorry, but there is no recourse against your employer.

File for unemployment ASAP and start job hunting.

 

[Taxing Matters]

It's a little unclear what you mean by “file a claim”. You certainly may file for unemployment compensation and you might get that. It's easy and inexpensive to try so you have nothing to lose by trying.

But nothing you’ve said indicates that this as a “wrongful termination” as that term is used in the law. When the employer is not a government agency, then the employer may legally fire you for any reason (or no reason at all) except for a few reasons prohibited by law. The prohibited reasons include firing you because:

• of your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like sexual orientation);
• you make certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);
• you participate in union organizing activities;
• you use a right or benefit the law guarantees you (e.g. using leave under FMLA);
• you filed a bankruptcy petition;
• your pay was garnished by a single creditor; and
• you took time off work to attend jury duty (in most states).

The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary by state. In your situation, it sounds like the company terminated you because management believed you just weren't performing up to what they wanted. If that's the reason you were fired then the termination was not wrongful and you'd get nothing suing the employer for it. The law doesn't require that an employer follow any particular process to fire you. The employer is not required to have a good reason to fire you or to give you an opportunity to improve or correct your work before firing you. The manager could have simply called you one day out of the blue and said “you're fired” and that would be good enough. The termination is only wrongful if the reason for firing you was something like the things I listed above.

 

[quincy]

It's a little unclear what you mean by “file a claim”. You certainly may file for unemployment compensation and you might get that. It's easy and expensive to try so you have nothing to lose by trying.

But nothing you’ve said indicates that this as a “wrongful termination” as that term is used in the law. When the employer is not a government agency, then the employer may legally fire you for any reason (or no reason at all) except for a few reasons prohibited by law. The prohibited reasons include firing you because:

• of your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, or genetic test information under federal law (some states/localities add a few more categories like sexual orientation);
• you make certain kinds of reports about the employer to the government or in limited circumstances to specified persons in the employing company itself (known as whistle-blower protection laws);
• you participate in union organizing activities;
• you use a right or benefit the law guarantees you (e.g. using leave under FMLA);
• you filed a bankruptcy petition;
• your pay was garnished by a single creditor; and
• you took time off work to attend jury duty (in most states).

The exact list of prohibited reasons will vary by state. In your situation, it sounds like the company terminated you because management believed you just weren't performing up to what they wanted. If that's the reason you were fired then the termination was not wrongful and you'd get nothing suing the employer for it. The law doesn't require that an employer follow any particular process to fire you. The employer is not required to have a good reason to fire you or to give you an opportunity to improve or correct your work before firing you. The manager could have simply called you one day out of the blue and said “you're fired” and that would be good enough. The termination is only wrongful if the reason for firing you was something like the things I listed above.

I think you meant easy and inexpensive to try ...

 

[Taxing Matters]

I think you meant easy and inexpensive to try ...

Thank you, that is indeed what I meant, and I have edited my post as a result.

 

[Zigner]

As was stated...file a claim. Expect that one of their responses will be willful insubordination (your refusal to sign the document).