Employers and employees have the option to end a work contract at any point. Companies often make the decision to eliminate a worker’s position due to mediocre job performance, personality conflicts in the workplace or misconduct. Others become resentful and blame the company. They may initiate a lawsuit and allege that they experienced a wrongful termination.
While employers can fire workers for almost any reason, wrongful termination is still a concern. Businesses cannot consider a worker’s protected personal characteristics when deciding whether to fire someone or who to include in a layoff. Companies also cannot retaliate against workers by firing them after they make use of their rights as employees.
A lawsuit alleging wrongful termination may damage a company’s reputation and cost thousands of dollars. How can employers defend against allegations of wrongful termination brought by former employees?
With internal documentation
The simplest way to counter claims of wrongful termination is to prove that the company had legal justification for its decision. In scenarios where performance issues may have contributed to the decision, providing records of an employee’s declining performance review ratings could help the company defend against the lawsuit.
In scenarios where misconduct or interpersonal conflict contributed to the decision, records of progressive discipline efforts could help. Written records of attempts to address the issue with the worker can help show that the organization did not discriminate or retaliate against an employee by ending their employment. The more documentation the company has affirming expectations for the worker and their actual performance on the job, the easier it may be to justify their termination.
In scenarios where a worker lost their job as part of a widespread staff reduction effort, the company could provide documentation related to the decision-making process. Showing the metrics that the company used to evaluate workers and make decisions about who to include in the layoffs could help counter allegations that the inclusion of a specific employee was wrong.
The best defense to a wrongful termination claim may involve documentation from before the employee left their job. That being said, companies can still respond assertively even in scenarios where they may not have pre-existing documentation. In such cases, they may need to evaluate the worker’s allegations and organizational records to develop a strategy. Understanding the employment laws that govern wrongful termination claims can help employers prove that they did not violate a worker’s rights.