Steps To Take If You’ve Been Unfairly Terminated
Unfair dismissal or wrongful termination can have devastating impacts on your future employment and benefits. You may even experience difficulty explaining the termination specifics when job hunting.
However, it’s important not to accept an unfair termination from your employer without finding out why. Knowing the reasons behind your dismissal may help your case should you need it.
Some examples of an unfair termination included dismissal based on discrimination, retaliation, and whistleblowing.
Now, here are four steps you need to take if you’ve been unfairly terminated.
Go To Your HR Department
Being unfairly dismissed can be hard to swallow, but you must remain calm throughout this process. Firstly, you must approach your human resources department to determine why you were dismissed and who made that decision. You can use this information as evidence in your case.
It is essential to exhaust all administrative relief measures before taking the matter further by either acquiring an employment lawyer or approaching a labor regulatory body.
Find An Employment Lawyer
Should your attempt at seeking administrative relief measures fail, the next step is to find an employment lawyer who is highly trained and specializes in unfair termination. That said, to find a lawyer that is well-versed in local labor laws, it’s essential to search things like ‘labor lawyers near me.’ This will give you the results of experts within your local area.
A labor lawyer will make you aware of your employee rights and how they have been violated. They will build a case to submit before the EEOC. Your lawyer will use the records or evidence you collected earlier in the process to strengthen your case.
File A Complaint With The EEOC
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is a regulatory body that combats workplace discrimination and hostility. The EEOC will assess your claim brought forth by your lawyer and decide if there is enough evidence to investigate further. Your lawyer will use the records or evidence you collected earlier in the process.
The EEOC investigation may be concluded in one of two ways; either you have been unfairly dismissed and should be reinstated with immediate effect, or the body may agree with your employer, and you would have to leave the matter behind.
Moving forward, you may choose to let the matter go or take the case to a higher court.
Do Not Leave Empty-Handed
Should you lose your initial case at the EEOC, you may decide to take the matter to a higher court. This action may be viewed as an act of aggression by your employers and may cause them to delay your severance payout.
So, it’s entirely your responsibility to ensure that you do not resolve the matter before receiving your severance package. The package is designed to assist you in such cases where you have lost your source of income.
It is vital to ensure you receive any pending payments before you leave your work premises on the dismissal day. These payments may be unpaid commissions, bonuses, or reimbursements.
Being unfairly dismissed is not a pleasant thing to endure; however, it is essential to note that there is always a possibility of such things happening and that you should always have a recovery plan.