WRONGFUL TERMINATION

Employees who have been fired by their employer without cause or justification may claim that their termination was unlawful. Unfortunately, Texas is an “at will” State and an employer may terminate an employee for any reason or no reason at all, a cause or justification is not required to justify the termination.

Thankfully, there are exceptions to the “at will” rule. In Texas, for a termination to be a “wrongful termination”, it must violate a law, statute, or regulation. For example, it would be unlawful for an employer to terminate an employee because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or disability.

If there is no law that the employer has violated, there are often clauses in the employee’s Employment Contract that limit the employer’s right to terminate an employee and the employee can file a lawsuit alleging breach of contract.

Or, the employee’s termination may violate the employer’s own in‑house policies and there is an internal grievance process.

Or, there may be a Union that represents the employee’s work group and the employee’s termination violates the Union’s contract with the employer. In that case, the employee should contact their Union Representative to file a grievance.  

Or. you are a federal, state, county or municipal employee and your government employer has an appeal procedure in place.

So, even if there is no explicit law, there are sometimes contractual, procedural, or internal remedies that would allow an Employment Attorney to advocate for reinstatement or monetary relief.

CONSTRUCTIVE  DISCHARGE

It is important to distinguish the concept of Constructive Discharge from Wrongful Termination. Constructive Discharge occurs when an employer creates working conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person would feel forced to resign, effectively forcing the employee's termination. Wrongful termination, on the other hand, is the broader concept of being fired for illegal reasons, such as discrimination or retaliation, but constructive discharge is a specific legal theory that allows an employee who resigned under duress to sue for wrongful termination. 

Constructive discharge, also known as constructive dismissal, occurs when an employer forces an employee to resign. In other words, even though the employee resigned, the separation was not voluntary.

Constructive discharge, however, is not always that straight forward. A common situation is when a workplace becomes so hostile or intolerable that an employee cannot continue working. The legal test is that a "reasonable employee would have felt compelled to resign." Other actions taken by an employer may also be considered a “constructive discharge” where the employer demotes an employee or reassigns him or her to menial or degrading work, cuts his or her pay, eliminates benefits, creates unachievable workloads, refuses to provide necessary training or forces an employee to relocate to an unreasonable or undesirable location

Unfortunately, Texas courts do not look favorably on constructive discharge claims. Before you consider resigning your job because of badgering, harassment or humiliation, you should contact an experienced Employment Lawyer prior to resigning your position.

Deborah is knowledgeable and experienced in handling both Constructive Discharge and Wrongful Termination cases and can assist you. Please set up an appointment with her to discuss your case.